7 Best Fly Control Strategies For Pastured Poultry Old Farmers Swear By
Flies plaguing your pastured poultry? Discover 7 time-tested strategies old farmers swear by, from smart pasture rotation to using natural predators.
That low hum you hear on a hot July afternoon isn’t just the sound of summer; it’s the sound of a fly explosion waiting to happen around your chicken tractor. Flies aren’t just a nuisance that bothers you at the back door; for your flock, they are a source of constant stress and a vector for disease. The old-timers knew that winning the war on flies isn’t about a single magic spray, but a layered defense built on common sense and a deep understanding of your farm’s ecosystem.
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The Foundation: Proactive Manure Management
The absolute, non-negotiable starting point for fly control is manure management. Flies lay their eggs in moist, nitrogen-rich environments, and nothing fits that description better than chicken droppings. If you only focus on killing adult flies, you are fighting a battle you will never win.
For those of us using mobile coops, this means moving the shelter frequently. Don’t just move it when the grass looks trampled; move it before the manure has a chance to become a nursery. In cool, dry weather, you might get away with moving every few days, but during a hot, humid summer week, a daily move is your best defense. The goal is to spread the manure thinly so the sun and air can dry it out quickly.
If you have a stationary coop, the deep litter method can be your ally or your enemy. Managed correctly, with regular additions of dry carbon material like pine shavings and periodic turning, it remains aerobic and less attractive to flies. But if it gets wet, compacted, and anaerobic, you’ve just built the perfect fly breeding ground right under your roosts. A dry coop is a fly-hostile coop.
Spalding Labs Fly Predators: A Living Solution
Fly Predators are one of the smartest tools in the modern farmer’s kit. These are not predators in the way a hawk is; they are tiny, gnat-sized parasitic wasps that don’t bother humans or animals. Their sole mission is to find and destroy fly pupae in the soil or manure before they can ever hatch into adults.
This is a proactive, not a reactive, strategy. You release them early in the season, before flies become a major problem. You sprinkle the contents of the bag around manure hotspots, and they go to work. They are a living, self-perpetuating solution that stops the next generation of flies from ever taking wing.
The key is consistency. You typically get a shipment every three to four weeks throughout the warm season to maintain a healthy population. They are an ongoing operational cost, but they work silently in the background, drastically reducing the number of adult flies you ever have to deal with. Just remember, they are living creatures; using broad-spectrum chemical fly sprays will kill them just as effectively as the pest flies.
Rescue! Big Bag Fly Trap for Perimeter Defense
While Fly Predators work on the next generation, you still need a plan for the adult flies that are already buzzing around. This is where the Rescue! Big Bag Fly Trap comes in. These traps use a potent, non-toxic attractant that adult flies find irresistible. They are brutally effective at knocking down the existing population.
Placement is everything. The attractant smells awful, so you must hang these traps on the perimeter of your property, downwind from your house and outdoor living areas. The goal is to intercept flies and draw them away from your coop and your porch. Placing one right next to the chicken run is a common mistake that just invites more flies to the party.
Think of these traps as your frontline soldiers for high-traffic areas. They will fill up with shocking speed during peak fly season, requiring regular replacement. They aren’t a pretty solution, and disposing of a full bag is a grim task, but their effectiveness in reducing the sheer volume of adult flies is undeniable.
Using Food-Grade Diatomaceous Earth in Bedding
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Diatomaceous Earth, or DE, is a fine powder made from the fossilized remains of tiny aquatic organisms. On a microscopic level, it’s incredibly sharp and abrasive. For insects with an exoskeleton like fly larvae, it works by scratching their protective outer layer and causing them to dehydrate and die.
The best way to use DE is to lightly dust it into the coop bedding during a cleanout or when adding fresh shavings. It’s most effective in a dry environment, where it helps absorb moisture and creates an inhospitable place for larvae to develop. Always use food-grade DE, and always wear a dust mask during application. While non-toxic, the fine silica particles are harmful to your lungs.
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DE is a useful supporting player, not the star of the show. Its effectiveness plummets the moment it gets wet, making it less useful in damp outdoor runs. It’s a great addition to your deep litter management inside the coop, but don’t expect it to solve a major fly infestation on its own.
Planting a Mint and Lavender Coop-Side Border
Nature provides its own set of deterrents. Many pests, including flies, are repelled by the strong essential oils found in aromatic herbs. Planting a border of plants like mint, lavender, rosemary, basil, and lemongrass around your coop can create a subtle, fragrant barrier.
This is a simple, low-effort strategy with multiple benefits. Once established, these perennial herbs are hardy and require little maintenance. They also look and smell great, improving the area around the coop for you, not just the chickens. A word of caution: mint is notoriously invasive. It’s best to plant it in a raised bed or a large container to prevent it from taking over your entire yard.
Let’s be realistic: an herb border is not a magical force field. It won’t stop a determined swarm of flies on its own. But as part of a layered approach, it contributes to an environment that is generally less attractive to pests. It’s a small piece of the puzzle that works passively, 24/7.
Encouraging Your Flock’s Pest-Hunting Instincts
Never forget that you have a flock of tiny, feathered dinosaurs who are expert pest controllers. Chickens are voracious foragers and will happily spend their day scratching through litter and soil, devouring fly larvae, pupae, and any other insect they can find. Your job is to give them the opportunity to do their work.
For birds on pasture, this instinct is put to use every time you move their tractor to fresh ground. They immediately get to work scratching and sanitizing the area. For stationary coops, this means ensuring their run isn’t a compacted, barren patch of dirt. Periodically turning over sections of the run with a pitchfork or adding compostable materials gives them fresh ground to work.
This strategy beautifully integrates with manure management. If you have a compost pile, allowing your flock to access it (under supervision) turns a potential fly-breeding site into a protein-rich buffet. They will turn and aerate the pile for you while simultaneously eliminating countless pests. It’s the perfect example of turning a problem into a solution.
Attracting Barn Swallows for Aerial Fly Control
One of the most effective and elegant fly control methods involves looking up. A single barn swallow can consume hundreds, if not thousands, of flying insects every day. Encouraging a colony to nest on your property is like deploying your own private air force against flies.
Attracting them is a long-term project in ecological design. Swallows need three key things:
- A source of mud for building their nests.
- A sheltered, vertical surface to build on, like the eaves of a barn, shed, or porch.
- Open areas like pastures for hunting insects on the wing.
You can encourage them by maintaining a small, muddy puddle during the spring nesting season and by installing simple nesting shelves under a protective overhang. This isn’t a quick fix you can buy in a box. It’s an investment in the biodiversity of your farm that pays dividends for years with silent, efficient, and entirely free pest control.
Combining Methods for a Multi-Pronged Attack
The single biggest mistake in fly control is relying on one method. A truly effective strategy is a multi-pronged attack that targets different stages of the fly life cycle in different locations. You have to disrupt their ability to breed, intercept the adults, and make the entire area less hospitable.
A successful system layers these strategies. You start with excellent manure management as your foundation. Then, you add Fly Predators to prevent larvae from ever hatching. You hang Rescue! traps on the perimeter to catch the adults that slip through. You support this with DE in the bedding and a border of repellent herbs.
The goal is never total elimination; that’s an unrealistic and frustrating pursuit on a working farm. The goal is sustainable control. It’s about keeping the fly population low enough that it doesn’t impact the health of your flock or your enjoyment of your property. By combining methods, you create a resilient system that keeps the flies in check, season after season.
Ultimately, managing flies is about consistent effort and smart, layered defenses, not a frantic search for a silver bullet. Start by managing the manure, because that’s where the problem begins. From there, build a system that works for your specific setup, creating a healthier, lower-stress environment that lets your chickens thrive.
