So many flies!!!

[MatthewsHomestead]

Vanilla. Make a spray with some extract and water. Or those car fresheners. Or some candle/wax shavings. If you do the spray add a little mint extract too and it will supposedly deter mice and spiders too.

 

[MatthewsHomestead]

Question... will ducks eat fly larvae? Our silly drake is the pickiest guy I’ve ever seen, and our duck got eaten by a hawk last summer when they were free ranging. We really don’t have much experience with ducks! With all of this rain, we’re seeing fly larvae in the duck pen, so that’s probably where they’re coming from. If my drake won’t eat them, any ideas on how to get rid of them before they become flies? I don’t want to put them in our compost pile.

Get some guineas. They eat all the bad bugs like crazy!!!

 

[llombardo]

Vanilla. Make a spray with some extract and water. Or those car fresheners. Or some candle/wax shavings. If you do the spray add a little mint extract too and it will supposedly deter mice and spiders too.

I got some odd looks when I bought 24-3 packs of the vanilla car freshners. I changed from pine shavings to sand in the coop--much easier to scoop and now it smells like vanilla. Never thought about the candle wax.

 

[llombardo]

I had to get the smaller netting for over the pen because I didn't want bats to get tangled in it. I have several dogs and I don't want them getting a bat(one almost did--oddly the dogs name is Batman) so I bought my neighbor a couple bat houses so I can still enjoy them.

 

[MatthewsHomestead]

I got some odd looks when I bought 24-3 packs of the vanilla car freshners. I changed from pine shavings to sand in the coop--much easier to scoop and now it smells like vanilla. Never thought about the candle wax.

I would switch to sand but I dig out the poopy "mulch" for the garden......

 

[EggSighted4Life]

And at $8 that’s disposable.
I make mine this way. The neighbor buys the disposable kind. I use the top of theirs and nut or candy containers. Rubber gloves for making or dumping.
View attachment 1477855
The wasps also for them

At first I thought Ughhh!
But then I realized I could buy a new one and manipulate it to the nut jar. Do you think it will work better than the inverted 2 liter which could be completely disposed of without any dumping for about a dime (the refund we get in CA for plastics)?

What are DE and PDZ?

DE is diatomaceous earth. (not welcome at my house)

PDZ is a stall freshener.. http://www.sweetpdz.com/our-products.html

I believe some have said barn lime might be essentially the same thing as PDZ, but I am not sure and haven't used lime yet.

Fresh mint is an old remedy

Maybe when it's freshly cut... but not when growing... the mosquitoes perch on top and stick their tongues out at me.

 

[Pensmaster]

I think I may try this! Do you reuse the plastic jar?

Yes maybe a couple times then flies seem to not like it as much. Reuse the top for sure.

 

[Pensmaster]

At first I thought Ughhh!
But then I realized I could buy a new one and manipulate it to the nut jar. Do you think it will work better than the inverted 2 liter which could be completely disposed of without any dumping for about a dime (the refund we get in CA for plastics)?


DE is diatomaceous earth. (not welcome at my house)

PDZ is a stall freshener.. http://www.sweetpdz.com/our-products.html

I believe some have said barn lime might be essentially the same thing as PDZ, but I am not sure and haven't used lime yet.


Maybe when it's freshly cut... but not when growing... the mosquitoes perch on top and stick their tongues out at me.

I didn’t find the 2 liter as good as the nut jar. You can actually get the meat bees with it as well if you keep the bait fresh. My neighbor is really good at saving the tops for me.

 

[Pensmaster]

This is my set up for cutting the top. It’s screwed to the plywood disc to keep it from spinning. The white disc on plywood is from the last top I cut.

 

[Bweis13]

We have a ton of mint. I have to get my husband to move the duck house which I’m sure will help too. It’s his duck, but he forgets to move the house regularly. I wish I could just do it myself, but it’s too heavy.