Last night, after locking the chickens up, I turned our new batch of "bugs" loose.
We've been using fly predators from Spalding Labs since moving to here Havencroft Farm. These little tiny bugs arrive in the mail and begin to hatch out inside their bag in the house.
When they are really hatching well, we sprinkle them around the shelters and sleeping places of the sheep, goats, horse, llama and by the milk barn. You can look at the web site, if you are interested in the mechanics, but, they keep flies from hatching. We also use fly traps to entice and catch the flies that do hatch. With these controls, we seem to have fewer flies on our concentrated 5 acres than we do at work, where we haven't had any livestock in a year.
I order all the bugs for the year at the rate the company recommends and they arrive in the mail when they are needed. I don't have to think about it.
I wish I had such a system for other regular pest controls on the farm. Like dusting the angora goats. When we use diatomaceous earth to control goat lice on a regular basis, it works. Get off schedule and it doesn't. We also have flea controls for the indoor cats and dogs (which don't work as well as I'd like, anybody have any suggestions?) that have to be on a regular schedule to work. And the little dog's baths for her allergies and the new kitten's vaccinations and... I need a separate date book just for the critters. I used to keep a barn book, with everything that happened on the farm that day, weather, critters, garden and life happenings. I seem to have lost that organization. I still value chronicling, I just seem to have lost the focus.
I think I'll go weave and think about how I can become obsessive about recording life.
We've been using fly predators from Spalding Labs since moving to here Havencroft Farm. These little tiny bugs arrive in the mail and begin to hatch out inside their bag in the house.
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| We use both the jar fly traps like the one on the left and sticky traps like the one on the right. The jar type seem to work best for us. Kitty likes to supervise chores from her comfortable perch atop the sheep shelter. This double hoop shelter has worked really well for us. |
When they are really hatching well, we sprinkle them around the shelters and sleeping places of the sheep, goats, horse, llama and by the milk barn. You can look at the web site, if you are interested in the mechanics, but, they keep flies from hatching. We also use fly traps to entice and catch the flies that do hatch. With these controls, we seem to have fewer flies on our concentrated 5 acres than we do at work, where we haven't had any livestock in a year.
I order all the bugs for the year at the rate the company recommends and they arrive in the mail when they are needed. I don't have to think about it.
I wish I had such a system for other regular pest controls on the farm. Like dusting the angora goats. When we use diatomaceous earth to control goat lice on a regular basis, it works. Get off schedule and it doesn't. We also have flea controls for the indoor cats and dogs (which don't work as well as I'd like, anybody have any suggestions?) that have to be on a regular schedule to work. And the little dog's baths for her allergies and the new kitten's vaccinations and... I need a separate date book just for the critters. I used to keep a barn book, with everything that happened on the farm that day, weather, critters, garden and life happenings. I seem to have lost that organization. I still value chronicling, I just seem to have lost the focus.
I think I'll go weave and think about how I can become obsessive about recording life.
1 comment:
Have you tried diatomaceous earth in the house for the fleas? We had a bad infestation one time due to a friend's dog visiting and they just wouldn't get out of the floorboards. I dusted house with boric acid first, let sit and then vaccumed. Then I did the same with DE. Make sure you wear a mask for that. It works! The fly thing is so interesting! I've never heard of that before!
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