Turkeys for insect control in garden

[gila_dog]

Does anybody have any info or suggestions on using turkeys to control insects (particulary grasshoppers) in a garden. I don't want to use chickens because they scratch and dig so much. I know guineas are great bug eaters too, but they make too much noise. How about ducks?

 

[gila_dog]

Well, I got no feedback on that so far, so I Googled around and found this, in case anybody else is interested:

http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/cgi-bin/page.cgi?id=689

Looks like turkeys will work fine as long as I can keep them alive during their babyhood.

 

[Wildsky]

I've heard geese can be good! I've no experience with them though.......

 

[chrisf]

Hi Gilda, turkeys will eat every green thing in sight, as well as the insect population, mine (3, 1 hatched in incubator and very tame) eat all of my hostas, berries,and ornamentals that they can grab. My chickens scratch too much, geese are complete vegetarians and will not even look at a grasshopper, however, my beautiful khaki campbell ducks are insect vaccums! Their entire day is composed of looking for any kind of insect, large or small, and eating it. They dont scratch, they are so respectful of my plants, also, they dont eat them. Ducks are the way to go.

 

[gila_dog]

Thanks Chrisf. After reading the link about grazing turkeys I should have realized that they would eat up my garden along with the bugs. I will look into ducks instead.

Any disadavantages of ducks? I know they love water. Maybe I could give them a kiddy pool to splash around in. I'll bet that after a few days that water would be really funky! Could make great fertilizer or I could pour it on the compost pile.

I've had geese before. Two problems. They can be noisy, and they can be mean. A big gander can really beat you up. I saw something on TV some time ago about a Scottish whiskey distillery using geese as watchdogs. Nobody ever stole anything from that place!