Flies in yard, not coop or run

[Sofainthefog]

I know this is a pretty well covered topic, but I'm having trouble finding info specific to flies in the open area of the yard.

I let my chickens free range and so my issue with flies isn't really in the coop or their run, but out in the yard where they randomly poop. I have a droppings board with sweet PDZ in the coop and honestly never see flies in there. The run I sprinkle with lime and DE occasionally so I’m assuming that's also keeping the flies away.

The rest of the yard is where I'm having issues, some spots they're HORRIBLE. I sprinkled some barn lime to see if it helps, but since the sweet PDZ dries everything up I'm hesitant to use it; will it have an adverse effect on the plants in the yard?

I hose the areas they hang out in down in order to provide the evaporative cooling, which I'm sure kind of adds to the problem. I have heard lemon balm plants seem to repel them, has anyone else had success with this or any other plants? I also have a lot of fresh, fairly fragrant eucalyptus mulch I got for the garden but could spread that around too. If anyone else has experience with open areas of the yard please let me know your thoughts!

 

[Debbie292d]

I know this is a pretty well covered topic, but I'm having trouble finding info specific to flies in the open area of the yard.

I let my chickens free range and so my issue with flies isn't really in the coop or their run, but out in the yard where they randomly poop. I have a droppings board with sweet PDZ in the coop and honestly never see flies in there. The run I sprinkle with lime and DE occasionally so I’m assuming that's also keeping the flies away.

The rest of the yard is where I'm having issues, some spots they're HORRIBLE. I sprinkled some barn lime to see if it helps, but since the sweet PDZ dries everything up I'm hesitant to use it; will it have an adverse effect on the plants in the yard?

I hose the areas they hang out in down in order to provide the evaporative cooling, which I'm sure kind of adds to the problem. I have heard lemon balm plants seem to repel them, has anyone else had success with this or any other plants? I also have a lot of fresh, fairly fragrant eucalyptus mulch I got for the garden but could spread that around too. If anyone else has experience with open areas of the yard please let me know your thoughts!

We use PT-Alpine in our coop. We just spray a dot of it high up on the four walls and it keeps flies dead for about a month. The dead flies are safe for the chickens to eat.

We recently had issues on our deck, so sprayed a couple of dots on our house and that helped immensely.

For an open area like a yard, there'd be no place to spray this "dot" on something, so maybe if you put say a potted plant out there in the middle and spray a dot or two on the pot. The only thing is you want those dots to be out of reach of the chickens. They can have the dead flies though, so whatever you would put out there, put it up out of their reach.

The other thing that works is those horribly stinky bags. We bought some on Amazon and yeah, they work, but they get disgusting.

 

[Sofainthefog]

We use PT-Alpine in our coop. We just spray a dot of it high up on the four walls and it keeps flies dead for about a month. The dead flies are safe for the chickens to eat.

We recently had issues on our deck, so sprayed a couple of dots on our house and that helped immensely.

For an open area like a yard, there'd be no place to spray this "dot" on something, so maybe if you put say a potted plant out there in the middle and spray a dot or two on the pot. The only thing is you want those dots to be out of reach of the chickens. They can have the dead flies though, so whatever you would put out there, put it up out of their reach.

The other thing that works is those horribly stinky bags. We bought some on Amazon and yeah, they work, but they get disgusting.

Thank you! I'm looking into it, my only concern is that I have black soldier flies in my compost and I don't want anything to interfere with them (oddly enough, the house flies wont go where the black soldier flies are!) Do you have any experience with using them in the same space? Does it only affect the specific breed of fly?

 

[Debbie292d]

Thank you! I'm looking into it, my only concern is that I have black soldier flies in my compost and I don't want anything to interfere with them (oddly enough, the house flies wont go where the black soldier flies are!) Do you have any experience with using them in the same space? Does it only affect the specific breed of fly?

I am not sure about that, but if the black soldier flies leave the compost to come to where you have a fly issue and have this product in use, then yes, they'd probably die from it.

 

[Sofainthefog]

I am not sure about that, but if the black soldier flies leave the compost to come to where you have a fly issue and have this product in use, then yes, they'd probably die from it.

I noticed the area I sprinkled lime seems to be less fly heavy than some other areas of the yard. We have stray cats who sometimes use random areas of the yard as a litter box, and I think that's bringing them in more than the chickens. I'm going to try using lime in the other spots and see if it helps drive them away.

 

[Some Old Guy]

Thank you! I'm looking into it, my only concern is that I have black soldier flies in my compost and I don't want anything to interfere with them (oddly enough, the house flies wont go where the black soldier flies are!) Do you have any experience with using them in the same space? Does it only affect the specific breed of fly?

Black soldier flies should be safe. The adults don't eat anything, they just breed and die. If there is no good egg laying place near your fly killing PT-Alpine, the adults won't lay eggs there. Just keep the Alpine a good distance from wherever your BSF are laying eggs so the larva can't easily reach it. That should all be easy if you are actively farming the BSF.