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Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 5:59 pm
by Jonmarcus
I have these bugs in my pens. It's a little hard to see. They are black, I believe have wings. Can anyone tell me what they are?
Thanks

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:02 pm
by baronrenfrew
I need a closer up shot to be helpful.

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:17 pm
by Jonmarcus
Unfortunately Baronrenfrew I only have those four pictures and when I try to crop the picture it just goes blurry.

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:19 pm
by Jonmarcus
This is the best picture I can get

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:48 pm
by poultry_admin
Cluster flies?

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:10 pm
by WLLady
If they are only a few mm long they are fodder weevils....sometimes they come in shavings but more often they come in with commercial feed or from the great outdoors. They wont hurt the birds if they are weevils but they will eat the feed....and live under the waterers where its damp. My chickens wont eat them. If they were cluster flies they would be about half a cm long and my chickens gobble them up as fast as they can....
if they are in a complete swarm sitting in the sun coating the plywood they might be stable flies-if they bite you they are definitely stable flies. If they just kind of mill around and do nothing but fly up and then land and fly until you disturb them they are gnats of some kind...those i find mostly on horse manure though. The last photo does look like cluster flies to me, but i am not sure how big they are.

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:19 pm
by Ontario Chick
Looks like they like tight corners, I would dust there with calcium, it would hopefully dry out the next generation before they hatch.

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:30 pm
by WLLady
Or diatomaceous earth....that stuff will dry out most insects

Re: Bugs

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:10 pm
by ross
White Lime works too .

Re: Bugs

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:17 am
by Ontario Chick
Hydrated Lime = Calcium Hydroxide
Sorry I know it as Calcium, but Lime is the more commonly used name.
Great disinfectant used to paint inside barns with, also trunks of fruit trees, before the onset of Monsanto.
Goes a very long way, I think the last bag I bought about 8 years ago and it's still half full, used on barn floors after every clean out and also on brooder floors before the liner goes in.