HELP!!!!! My chickens are dropping dead!

[TanksHill]

Wow, that's crazy!

Are the gnats a regional thing? Or like cicadas only come every few years?

g

 

[cheepo]

I am very sorry to hear of your loss
had never heard of gnats..
thats horrid..
good luck hope the few survive

 

[~gd]

Ok, what is it with the gnats and chickens? I hadn't heard of that before. Do they spread a disease or something?

I suspect gnats are actually black flies. {often called buffalo gnats because of their small size and humped back].It is just about this time of year that millions take to the air. Like mosquitoes the females require a blood meal to reproduce and they are vampires! they like to c hew through skin and their slivia [spit to thouse that can spell] contains an anticlotting agent. They don't take a lot of blood each but there are tons of them and each 'bite' continues to seep blood. Humans tend to hide but animals can't really, Yes they carry many diseases but fast kill like described here are due to blood loss. Fuzzy chicks and ducklings are the first to go but you can lose full feathered birds to them to. They require clean flowing water so cleaning up streams is helping them make a come back They used to be a problem in Maine and MI's UP but now are fairly common on both sides of the Great Lakes Since they only eat blood posion is not a effective control.
Sorry that this isn't of much help. Fine screens won't keep them all out but will cut down on their numbers the females have a short life span and usuall disappear after 2 weeks

 

[Denim Deb]

I'd never heard of them either, so I googled them. This is some info I found on them. Hope it helps!

 

[Marianne]

OMG. This is all new to me, too. Sorry, ninny.

 

[Marianne]

Hey, would it help if you put a couple of those cheap, vanilla scented tree air fresheners in the coop?

A couple years ago I ended up with a boatload of rain blowing into the coop. The next day there were tons of flies in there. The vanilla air freshener cleared them out really fast! There are people on BYC that swear by 'em.

 

[sleuth]

Hey, would it help if you put a couple of those cheap, vanilla scented tree air fresheners in the coop?

A couple years ago I ended up with a boatload of rain blowing into the coop. The next day there were tons of flies in there. The vanilla air freshener cleared them out really fast! There are people on BYC that swear by 'em.

My coop and run are small enough that a couple well placed box fans could probably do some good as well. Just throwing that out there.

 

[~gd]

Well I am a OLD waterfowl raiser but it took me a while to make the connection between gnats and black flies. Back in the late 50s-60s many hatcheries would refuse to ship day old poultry into some areas because they quicky died with no visbile cause and the buyers demanded refunds.
vanilla scented tree air fresheners in the coop?may heip but I doubt it the black flies are looking for blood! They do work for mosqutioes because they are attracted by the carbon dioxide in the exhaled breath of mammals to find their bloodmeals.
I was hoping that someone from a black fly area would post and tell us what works for them

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Does the vanilla scent cover up the smell of the carbon dioxide that attracts mosquitos?

 

[~gd]

Does the vanilla scent cover up the smell of the carbon dioxide that attracts mosquitos?

I'm not a misquito so I can't say. Maybe it does or maybe they don't like vanilla.