Very lucky to have found this site!

[Camp Kelley]

Our family lives on the edge of a small Mississippi River town north of the IL Quad Cities. We just got our first baby chicks 4 weeks ago, 6 beautiful little girls. When we filled their food and water last evening, my husband and I found thousands of little gnats bugging our girls. I thought, "Well, they're chickens, they can handle it." A little while later, my husband came out and said that the gnat situation could be serious after he googled it and found YOUR site had several postings about gnats killing chickens. Less than an hour after we first discovered the horrible gnats, we went out again to spray the chicks with vanilla only to find 2 had died. So sad. We brought the other 4 chicks inside, weak and with bites all over. They have recovered nicely today, but are still inside.

Thank goodness for all the kind people who post on this site; we have 6 chicken books and there is nothing in any of them about gnats. Very grateful for this community. So much to learn about chickens!!

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC - thank goodness I don't have to deal with gnats.

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Camp Kelley, and

! Pleased you joined our community! Sorry to hear about your lost chicks - glad you found advice on BYC to help! Good luck to you!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us!

 

[drumstick diva]

Thank you now I learned something about gnats. I have heard they are attracked to yellow - so people can get yellow sticky traps and put them where the chicks can touch them. IF chicks did get stuck you can use vegetable oil to get them loose.

The stores (in auto department) usually have little xmas tree shaped car deodorizers and you can find them in vanilla scent. People use them to keep flies away I wonder if that would help with your gnats.