FLIES

[Mad Maggie]

Hi I am fairly new to keeping chickens and wondered if there is anyone who knows how to keep the flies away. I clean my girls out every day and replace some of the bedding daily but still have a lot of flies. I have ordered something called Ark Fresh from a poultry place to try but has anyone any other ideas. Would be really grateful

Thanks

 

[girlracer265]

red top fly traps are great imo http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=red+top+fly+trap&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=6275683985&ref=pd_sl_2q0klq0ayd_e

 

[Mad Maggie]

Hi
Thanks for the reply - never having heard of them before just googled it and it looks great. Do you find it works well? Where in relation to your hen house/run do you place it?

Thanks

Maggie

 

[Tim]

Nuissance fly season is about to come to an end but I've just been speaking with a vet about some parasitic wasps they sell - the larvae eat the fly eggs and apparently cut down on fly numbers drastically.

Totally orgainic of course - I may try them next year to see how well they work.

The Red Top fly traps are supposed to be pretty good though.

Tim

 

[girlracer265]

Hi
Thanks for the reply - never having heard of them before just googled it and it looks great. Do you find it works well? Where in relation to your hen house/run do you place it?

Thanks

Maggie

i have mine as far away from the house as possible because apparently they smell pretty bad
Tim the waspy thing sounds great, are you gonna be writing about it ?

 

[Lucylou]

The wasp thing sound very eco-friendly but I don't know about anyone else, but we've been plagued by wasps this season, they're everywhere Would this just bring more wasps?

I was getting really fed up with the flies earlier on too, ended up just keeping all the poo & food bits down to a minimum,as I've only got 4 chooks now this wasn't too difficult, it did make a difference.

 

[Anonymous]

I would also reccomend the red top fly traps. They can be smelly on a still, warm day, but not so pungent if there's a breeze ! As others have said keep it away from your house and its ok.

Lisa

 

[Tim]

Yes Girlracer, the "Waspy thing" should appear next year - I have some information coming from the poultry vets that market it but it's the end of the fly season now so I thought it would be better appearing next spring... I will find out if they sting or whether they are harmless too.

 

[Mad Maggie]

Hi

Thanks for the replies. As you say the flies seem to be dying down now. I have also bought some granules from P&T poultry that you can put on the floor to cut down on the ammonia smell which I thought may be attracting them. The waspie thing sounds interesting but do they sting when they have hatched - looking forward to hearing about them next year.

 

[Tim]

Here's the Waspy thing info I had back when I asked the question: (Information from Chicken Vet)
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The parasitic wasps always sound a bit scary but they are tiny, only approx 2mm in size when they hatch, they are totally harmless and you did not see an influx of another insect replacing the fly! ...............

......They are transported in bags with some grain as a filler, they are all unhatched pupae, as the temperature rises they hatch and then burrow into the fly pupae to lay their eggs thus destroying the emerging flies. You literally spread them by hand onto dung heaps or through the slats in a poultry house.

We store them in the fridge to stop them hatching and then when they are spread the hatching process begins. They are also completely organic but they only kill the fly pupae so to control adult flies you still ideally need to use a knock down product, however the beauty is if you use this once a fortnight for 6 treatments (12 weeks in total) during the worst of the fly season you dramatically reduce the amount of chemical used.