Rice weevil mayhem.

[Messybun]

Okay, we’ve had an unseasonably warm winter so far and my usual small weevil problem is out of control. You can hear them humming as soon as the door is open.

I’m thinking of sulfur smoking them. Seeing as I’ve never burned sulfur what are your safety tips?
My total plan is to remove the hay and sweep out what I can. Spread the bags out a little. Set a fire in an old cast iron pot on a stand. I’m thinking about a 1/4 cup of sulfur should smoke the entire thing? Close the door and let it burn out on its own. Leave it for two days at least before reopening the door.
It feels like this is a stupid idea in some way, so I wanted to run it by y’all first.

 

[baymule]

I don’t know how to get rid of them. Try it. The worst that can happen is that they like the smoke and call in their friends.

 

[flowerbug]

greenhouse guy uses a full mask and respirator when he smokes his greenhouses. breathing sulphur fumes is bad on the lungs.

 

[Medicine Woman]

Hmmmm. I like bio security. I don’t allow anyone to sweep the spider webs from my barn because they collect mosquitoes which don’t get to bite my chickens and get them sick. My first thought would be ,’what eats weevils that I can put up with?’ I have once intentionally infested my house with geckos to take care of a nasty problem I had when I accepted a piece of furniture from someone without thinking. And that might not be a bad idea. Of course I would probably be the one throwing in a few dozen chickens to hurry up and clean house. But maybe you can fumigate them.

 

[Messybun]

Hmmmm. I like bio security. I don’t allow anyone to sweep the spider webs from my barn because they collect mosquitoes which don’t get to bite my chickens and get them sick. My first thought would be ,’what eats weevils that I can put up with?’ I have once intentionally infested my house with geckos to take care of a nasty problem I had when I accepted a piece of furniture from someone without thinking. And that might not be a bad idea. Of course I would probably be the one throwing in a few dozen chickens to hurry up and clean house. But maybe you can fumigate them.

As far as I’ve read these weevils are not native. So no natural predators I can find. But I love your thinking. I’ve had snakes move in to take care of my mice in the feed shed and been very happy to leave them alone!

 

[flowerbug]

yes, i haven't sprayed any insect killers inside the house at all, ever. outside once in a while Mom uses the hornet sprays which are hideous poisons i won't use them, instead i go out when it is cool in the morning and remove the nests. the raccoons will go around and find hornet nests in the many rocks we have. also hornets will help with some caterpillar worm type pests. so i'm ok tolerating them as long as they aren't actively attacking me.

inside the house we have the small cellar spiders which will hang out in some corners, we also have some jumping spiders and the active hunting wolf spiders. in my worm buckets i have some tiny spiders for controlling the fungus gnats that sometimes want to kick off a population explosion. since i started using the small spiders for control i've not had any new population explosions so it is working out great.

if anyone wants to try these spiders out go find a forest floor with some leaf piles and other detritus and you may be able to find some small spiders in your area that will work out. these spiders are so tiny they can't even bite you. i came across them one day when i was harvesting humus and thought i'd give them a try. well worth the experiment.

 

[flowerbug]

As far as I’ve read these weevils are not native. So no natural predators I can find. But I love your thinking. I’ve had snakes move in to take care of my mice in the feed shed and been very happy to leave them alone!

i hope you can find something that will work/help!

 

[Medicine Woman]

Well gecko and guinea fowl aren’t native to my area but I have them. Think....dinosaurs.

 

[Hardknockshomestead]

We don't use chemicals here, either. I had barn flies tormenting my poor goats a few years back. They bite and it REALLY hurts. The flies, not the goats lol. We started turning in the chickens into the goat yard, and now there are way fewer biting flies.

I wish i could find a natural solution to the fly problem in my house, though. In summer, we always seem to have LOTS of flies inside. I hate flies.

 

[Hardknockshomestead]

We made a pop door in the side of the coop that faced the goat pens and started letting the chickens out into the goat yard in the morning. So now, we have 2 enclosed, but separate areas for the chickens. We can rotate the chickens in these areas, kind of like pasture rotation, and let them scratch around in the goat yard and eat fly larvae to their hearts' content.