Need to get rid of FLYS!!! they are constantly on the chickens and ducks food. Any ideas?

[ZaksGarden]

I keep a zip lock bag of water and cut up pieces of tin foil on the door of my coop. I rarely ever see flies and I attribute it to the bag. Something about the foil, water and reflections it creates from sunlight scare them away. I do sprinkle the coop once a week with Diatamaceous Earth.

For the flies that get in my house I bought an electric fly swatter at Walmart for 6 dollars, and man does it kill them! If you had a lot of flies in your coop and wanted to kill them quick and easy it sure would do it! I found it in the garden department.

[=http://www.walmart.com/ip/Zap-Master-Handheld-Electric-Bug-Zapper/19530536][/]

 

[mini-micro rancher]

Get two of those electric fly swatters! Put one away for next spring, as they didn't hit the stores until later. They work better than regular fly swatters for getting them in mid-air. And if you have teenagers or tweens, those electric fly swatters are FUN!

 

[Gardeningmama]

Get two of those electric fly swatters! Put one away for next spring, as they didn't hit the stores until later. They work better than regular fly swatters for getting them in mid-air. And if you have teenagers or tweens, those electric fly swatters are FUN!

To swat who? The flies or the teens?

 

[mini-micro rancher]

Hehe! "Mom, the fly swatted isn't working!" "it isn't? Touch it and find out."

 

[ZaksGarden]

Hey now you can joke about it! I accidentally touched mine one day and I swear the hairs on my head stood up! It was quite a jolt!!

 

[LovinChicknFarmn]

Last year we got one of those fly traps that look like a plastic jar and you add water to make a solution that attracts flies. It is awesome in that it'll draw in hundreds of flys. Pretty much they drown once they get in there. But, emptying it is disgusting. It's a giant congealed mass of flies. It also stinks horribly. So, if you are squeamish, it may not be for you. We moved to fly paper hanging outside the coop/run where there would be no way it could touch the chickens. That still cut down on flies quite a bit. Another good tip, and I don't know why it works, is vanilla car air freshners. We attach one or two to the top of the fencing for the run (again where the chickens can't get to it) and it helps a bunch. We read about it somewhere and tried it. And, like others have said, clean the coop more frequently. It's the only way to clear out the maggots.

 

[dominiques]

How often to you spinkle DE on coop floor, dust bath, under roost?

 

[Gardeningmama]

How often to you spinkle DE on coop floor, dust bath, under roost?

I keep a bucket of it next to my coop with a dust pan in it, for any occasion. I always add it in when changing the pine shavings, and put extra under the roosting bar. I can't say how often because I just keep it there and add as needed, like when the flies start coming back, or the poop doesn't seem to be drying out. One coop I use is more like a rabbit hutch with a wire floor,I keep the ground underneath layered with it,if I don't the flies come back. Because the chickens like to hang out under my main coop, and I can't get under there easily, the flies can become a problem there. BUT... a $5 dollar bill to my 10 year old son, and he's under there in no time, dust's for me and problem solved. It really is a wonderful product.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I've heard that the vanilla scented pine tree air fresheners that you buy for your car are excellent fly repellents. They hate the smell apparently, buy we love it. I haven't tried it yet but if you did a search on BYC you could probably come up with the thread.

 

[ldutch123]

I have kept de on the floors of the coop and got rid of the mats and we r doing pretty good inside the coop but outside is still awful with flys uggggggggg