6 Best Pooper Scoopers To Reduce Fly Populations Old Farmers Swear By
A clean yard is key to fly control. Discover the 6 best pooper scoopers, recommended by old farmers for efficient waste removal and pest reduction.
Walk out to the barn on a warm summer morning, and you’ll hear it: the low, constant buzz of flies. They’re on your animals, in the feed buckets, and trying to follow you back into the house. The single most effective way to fight this battle isn’t with sticky traps or chemical sprays; it’s with a good pooper scooper and a few minutes of your time each day. This isn’t just about tidiness—it’s about breaking the fly life cycle at its source.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you!
Manure Management: Your First Line of Fly Defense
Flies aren’t just a nuisance; they’re a health hazard, spreading bacteria and causing stress to livestock. They lay their eggs in manure, where the larvae hatch and mature in as little as a week. Removing that manure promptly and consistently is the only way to truly get ahead of the population explosion.
The fanciest fly trap in the world can’t compete with a clean environment. The goal is to remove the manure before it becomes a fly nursery. This means a daily or every-other-day routine is non-negotiable during the warm months.
Forget finding one "perfect" tool. The best pooper scooper is the one that makes this daily chore fast and easy for your specific setup. A tool that works wonders in a stall full of pine shavings will be useless in a gravel dog run. The key is matching the tool to the surface, the animal, and the volume of waste you’re dealing with.
Little Giant DuraFork: The Classic Manure Fork
This is the workhorse of almost every small barn. The Little Giant DuraFork, or one of its many look-alikes, is designed for one job: sifting manure from bedding. Its tines are spaced perfectly to let clean shavings, straw, or sawdust fall through while holding onto manure balls and soiled bedding.
Made from durable polycarbonate, it’s lightweight yet surprisingly strong, resisting cold-weather cracking better than cheaper plastics. Its primary use is for mucking out stalls, coops, and other bedded areas. You can quickly clean an entire horse stall, leaving a fresh bed behind with minimal waste of clean material.
The DuraFork’s weakness is on hard or bare surfaces. Trying to scrape wet manure off a concrete floor with its plastic tines is an exercise in frustration. It’s also not ideal for picking up smaller droppings, like those from goats or chickens, from packed earth, as you’ll just end up scraping up a lot of dirt. It is a sifter, first and foremost.
Four Paws Wire Rake for Kennels and Runs
Don’t let the "for dogs" marketing fool you; this tool is a farm essential. The Four Paws Wire Rake set consists of a sturdy metal rake and a wide, flat pan. The stiff wire tines are incredibly effective at pulling smaller droppings out of grass, gravel, or dirt without taking the ground with them.
This is the go-to tool for cleaning up after goats, sheep, alpacas, and, yes, the farm dogs. Because it’s all metal, it’s virtually indestructible and can be sanitized easily with a hose and a bit of disinfectant. It’s a simple, rugged design that just works.
Its limitation is volume. While excellent for spot-cleaning paddocks or runs, you wouldn’t want to muck a whole horse stall with it. The pan is relatively small, and the rake isn’t designed for sifting. Think of it as a precision tool for smaller jobs where a big fork is overkill.
Noble Outfitters Wave Fork for Stall Mucking
At first glance, the Noble Outfitters Wave Fork looks like a regular manure fork, but a closer look reveals its genius. The tines have a unique "wave" shape, creating a deeper basket that holds onto manure much more securely than a traditional flat fork. This small design change makes a huge difference in practice.
If you’ve ever been frustrated by losing half your load on the way to the wheelbarrow, this fork is your solution. It dramatically reduces spillage, which means fewer trips and less time spent on the chore. The tines are made from a flexible copolymer plastic that resists breaking, even when you’re prying up packed-in material.
Like the classic DuraFork, this is a sifting tool designed for bedded stalls. It shares the same limitations on hard surfaces. The tradeoff is a slightly higher price point, but for anyone mucking multiple stalls a day, the time and effort saved can easily justify the cost. It’s an efficiency upgrade on a classic design.
GoGo Stik ST: A Modern, No-Touch Solution
The GoGo Stik ST is a completely different approach to the problem. It’s a long-handled tool that uses a specially designed ring to hold a regular plastic grocery bag open. You scoop the waste directly into the bag, then use a simple mechanism to seal it without ever touching anything.
This tool shines in situations where cleanliness is paramount or for quick, surgical strikes. It’s perfect for picking up a few piles from the lawn before guests arrive or for spot-cleaning the barn aisle. Because the waste goes directly into a disposable bag, the tool itself stays clean.
The obvious downsides are the reliance on bags and its small capacity. This is not a tool for mucking a stall or cleaning a whole pasture. It’s a specialty scooper for one or two piles at a time. For those who are particularly squeamish or need a fast, no-mess option for high-traffic areas, it’s a clever solution.
Flexrake Jaws Scooper for Hard Surfaces
When you’re dealing with concrete, asphalt, or frozen ground, forks and rakes fail. This is where the Flexrake Jaws Scooper excels. This one-handed, spring-loaded tool has two interlocking "jaws" with serrated teeth that grab waste cleanly from hard, flat surfaces.
It’s the ideal tool for cleaning barn aisles, driveways, or patios. Because you can operate it with one hand, you can carry a bucket in the other, making for an efficient workflow. The all-metal construction is simple and durable, and there are no bags to worry about.
The Jaws Scooper is a one-pile-at-a-time tool. Its capacity is small, so it’s not meant for clearing large areas. It can also be clumsy on long grass, where it tends to grab as much grass as it does manure. But for its intended purpose—hard surfaces—it is unmatched.
The Original Pooper Scooper for Pasture Duty
Easily clean up after your dog without bending over using the Arm & Hammer Swivel Bin & Rake Pooper Scooper. The 32-inch adjustable handle and included scented waste bags make yard cleanup quick, sanitary, and odor-free.
The classic two-piece scooper, often sold as the "Original Pooper Scooper," features a long-handled spade or rake and a large-capacity pan. This design is built for covering ground. It’s the king of the small pasture or dry lot.
Its strength is efficiency over large areas. You can use the rake to gather several piles of manure from the grass into the pan before walking to your muck bucket or wheelbarrow. This saves countless steps compared to a tool that only handles one pile at a time. The flat edge of the pan also doubles as a scraper for stubborn spots on dirt or concrete.
This tool is a versatile generalist. It works reasonably well on grass, dirt, and even in a pinch on hard surfaces. It’s not a sifter, so you will pick up some grass or dirt along with the manure, but for pasture hygiene, that’s a minor tradeoff for the speed and convenience it offers.
Choosing the Right Scoop for Your Farm’s Needs
There is no single "best" pooper scooper. The right choice depends entirely on your specific chores. Trying to clean a gravel run with a sifting fork will only make you angry, while trying to muck a stall with a jaw scooper would take all day. Most small farms need at least two different types to handle various jobs efficiently.
Before you buy, ask yourself these questions:
- What is the surface? Is it deep bedding, short grass, packed dirt, or concrete? This is the most important factor.
- What kind of manure? Small, firm goat pellets are very different from a wet cow pie or horse manure mixed with straw.
- What is the volume? Are you spot-cleaning a few piles or mucking out an entire 12×12 stall?
- What are your physical needs? A long-handled tool can save your back, while a lightweight one reduces fatigue.
Ultimately, the goal is to make a daily chore as painless as possible. The right tool removes friction from the task, making you more likely to do it consistently. That consistency is what will win you the war against flies and create a healthier environment for your animals.
A pooper scooper isn’t the most glamorous tool on the farm, but it’s one of the most important. By choosing the right tool for the job, you transform manure management from a dreaded chore into a quick, effective routine. That simple routine is your most powerful weapon for a cleaner, healthier, and fly-free farm.
