How to Get Rid of Flies in the Chicken Coop
Tired of dealing with flies in your chicken coop? Discover effective fly control tips to get rid of them fast. Learn which traps actually work, how to prevent future infestations, and keep your coop clean, healthy, and fly-free all season long.
Where there are chickens, there are flies. It’s practically inevitable. Flies are attracted to chicken poop, wet bedding, and food scraps in the chicken run. It’s incredibly difficult to keep the coop and run completely clean each and every day.
Unfortunately, a few buzzing pests in the chicken coop can quickly go from a minor nuisance to a full-blown infestation. Not only are they annoying, but they can also spread disease, irritate your flock, and make your time in the coop unpleasant.
I learned this the hard way. Our first year raising chickens came with a lot of trial and error. The fly population exploded once the hot, humid summer weather settled in. Whenever I went out to the coop to check on the girls, a cloud of flies greeted me at the door. I’d come away flapping my arms like a maniac, just trying to keep them off my face.
Sound familiar? If you’re dealing with flies in your chicken coop, I’ve been there.
In this guide, I’ll share why flies are such a problem in backyard coops, how to get rid of them quickly, and most importantly, how to keep them from returning.
Why Are There So Many Flies in the Chicken Coop?
Flies love everything about a chicken coop: the warmth, moisture, manure, leftover feed, and broken eggshells. While a few flies are normal, under the right conditions, they can multiply quickly and cause more trouble than you might expect.
Here’s why it’s important to get flies under control:
- Disease risk: Flies can spread bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens that threaten your flock (and you).
- Flystrike: A dangerous condition where flies lay eggs on a chicken, and the larvae burrow into the bird’s skin.
- Stress: Constant buzzing, biting, and pestering makes for unhappy hens and can affect laying.
- Mess and stink: Excess flies usually mean excess moisture and waste, affecting egg cleanliness and coop hygiene.
How to Rid Your Chicken Coop of Flies (and Keep Them Away!)
After extensive and rather disgusting research, I discovered that we had three different types of flies occupying our land: cluster flies, bottle flies, and house flies. Because they were all different, there was no one solution to get rid of them.
I read that bottle flies are attracted to “filth” and cringed when I realized we had plenty of that to go around. Chicken poop galore up in that place.
Step 1: Tidy Up the Coop
The first thing that had to be done to get rid of flies in the chicken coop was to thoroughly clean and lay down fresh bedding in the coop and run.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: you can’t out-trap a messy coop. The first and most important step is tidying up the environment the flies are feasting on.
- Scoop droppings regularly: I have a droppings board under the roost. I call it my poop deck. I started cleaning this more frequently, and it was a game changer.
- Keep bedding dry: Wet or compacted litter is a fly magnet. I fluff and replace the bedding more often in summer.
- Clean waterers and feeders: Spilled feed and damp areas around the waterer create prime fly real estate.
- Collect eggs daily: Broken eggs can quickly attract flies (and encourage egg eating by your hens, which is a whole different problem).
Keeping things dry and clean won’t eliminate every fly, but it will take away their favorite breeding grounds.
Step 2: Trap the Flies That Are Already There
Once the coop was clean, it was time to go on the offensive. I headed to our local farm store, determined to stock up on fly-fighting tools. After chatting with the employees about safe options for animals and people, I came home with a small arsenal: sticky fly rolls and baited hanging jar traps.
- Sticky Fly Rolls: Sticky fly rolls are long, adhesive strips that you unroll and hang around fly-prone areas. The TERRO Super Fly Roll is what I use, and it is designed to stay flat and resist twisting in the wind, unlike the traditional yellow fly strip ribbons. Flies land on the sticky surface and get trapped. These work best near doors, windows, vents, or outside the coop away from your chickens, since they can get stuck too!
- Baited Hanging Jar Traps: The Starbar Captivator is a reusable plastic jar trap with a strong-smelling, non-toxic attractant to lure flies inside. Once in, they can’t escape and eventually die. These traps are highly effective for large fly populations. Just hang them a little ways away from the coop door to avoid drawing flies toward you or the chickens.
I started with the sticky fly roll, hanging several around the coop near the windows and vents. They worked, sort of. They caught a fair number of flies, but it wasn’t enough to put a real dent in the swarm.
Then I tried the hanging jar trap, and wow, that’s when things really changed.
Within a day or two, the trap was full. I’m talking hundreds of flies. It was equal parts disgusting and satisfying. What I love most is that you only need to replace the fly attractant, not the trap itself, so it’s reusable. The attractant is also non-toxic, which means you can compost the dead flies, yes, really! It even says on the box that they make great garden fertilizer.
(Side note: the box also warns not to seal dead flies and attractant in an airtight container because the decomposition could cause it to explode. Why would anyone do that? I don’t know… but now I kind of want to see it.)
That said, fly traps don’t always start catching right away. At first, I noticed flies buzzing all around the trap but not going inside. Later, I learned they’re more likely to enter once other flies are already in there. It’s a weird, gross peer pressure thing.
To speed things up, I hung a fly roll right next to the trap. That way, the flies hanging around the area had another place to land. Holy moly, did it work. Within three hours, the roll was completely coated. I couldn’t even see the strip anymore, just a thick, buzzing blanket of flies.
I actually prefer these fly rolls over the traditional yellow fly ribbons. They don’t twist in the wind, they stay put, and the flies really stick to them. The only downside? They fill up fast and have to be tossed, so they can get pricey if you’re dealing with a large infestation.
Important tip: Never hang sticky traps inside the coop or run. We learned this the hard way. Chickens will absolutely fly into them, get stuck in the dead-fly goo, and then panic because they can’t get it off. Not their finest moment.
After five days of rotating fly rolls and refilling the bait trap, we were finally back to just a few flies buzzing around the coop. This combo attack, baited traps plus sticky rolls, was the most effective solution we found to knock down the infestation fast.
Step 3: Try Natural Fly Repellents
Once I got ahead of the infestation, I started looking for longer-term, less gross options. That’s when I discovered that herbs and essential oils could help and make the coop smell a whole lot better.
Here’s what helped:
- Herb bundles: I hung bunches of fresh mint, rosemary, sage, lemon balm, thyme, and lavender inside the coop, and tossed herbs into the nesting boxes as a fly deterrence. Not only do the herbs help repel flies, but they also add a nice scent and a calming touch to the space. The chickens liked pecking at the herb bundles too. A little enrichment and pest control!
- Natural DIY spray: A mix of water, white vinegar, and a few drops of peppermint or citronella oil made a great natural repellent. I mixed it in a spray bottle and sprayed it around the pen roof, coop doors, and windows (not directly on the birds or their food).
- Diatomaceous earth (DE): I sprinkled food-grade DE powder in the bedding and corners. It dries out fly larvae and other pests. Just be careful not to breathe it in, it’s dusty. It is good for dust baths too. Just sprinkle DE in the dirt and mix it in.
Step 4: Long-Term Prevention Tips
Once I got the fly population under control, I made a few simple changes to help keep them from coming back. These small tweaks have made a huge difference:
- Improved ventilation: I added an extra vent to the back of the coop, and it really helped. Better airflow keeps the coop drier, which makes it less inviting to flies.
- Covered the pen: We installed a roof with a slight overhang over the outdoor run to keep rain out. No more soggy, stinky ground, just dry bedding, and happier chickens.
- Switched to pine shavings: I used sand in the coop and found it held too much moisture, especially in our humid summers. Once I swapped to pine shavings, the coop stayed much drier and smelled better, too.
- Clean more often: Our droppings board under the roost makes cleanup quick and easy. I scoop the bedding from the poop deck into a box and add fresh pine shavings. It only takes a minute, and it really helps cut down on flies.
- Pick up leftover treats: I still give the girls the occasional treat, but I always clean up any fruit they don’t eat within an hour or two. It keeps flies and other pests from showing up for a snack.
Final Thoughts
Flies might feel inevitable during the hot summer months, but they don’t have to take over your chicken coop. With regular cleaning, better airflow, strategic trap placement, and a few natural deterrents, you can drastically cut down on the buzzing and biting. Your chickens and your sanity will be better off for it.
We’ve learned the hard way that prevention really is the best medicine. These days, keeping up with poop patrol and staying ahead of moisture buildup has made all the difference.
How about you? What tricks have worked on your homestead? I’d love to hear your favorite fly-fighting tips in the comments!
Note: This article was originally published on July 22, 2013, and was updated on June 5, 2025, with new tips and up-to-date information.
Looking for more chicken keeping advice? You might also enjoy these helpful posts:
- 6 Steps to Train Chickens to Come When Called
- How to Get Rid of Rats in your Chicken Coop
- How to Grow a Chicken Garden: Grow Crops for Your Flock
I loved your article, it was very informative.
Thank you! I added it to your hop, I’ll be stopping more often, I just saved your blog to bloglovin! 🙂
I love this article! Well done! It answers questions and gives excellent solutions!
Oh my gosh..we have been struggling with fly strips and the like, but I am absolutely COVETING that big fly jar. That thing looks amazing! Must go by immediately-thanks for sharing it!
I dont use the attractant that comes with fly jars. I save raw chicken scraps or buy cheapest chicken I can find and add it to the jar. I have an acre and we use 3-4 jars that we put out every spring. I empty it every 4-6 weeks and start over with fresh raw chicken. It is a smelly hob … may make you gag … but it saves you from the fly madness!
Tamie, That is a great frugal tip! Thanks for sharing.
Ok that may work but it’s kinda gross to handle and mess with. I just use an empty gallon plastic jug. Then I use 1 tsp of sugar with 2 teaspoons of yeast and 1/2 cup warm water. Let it sit 2-3 hours til the yeast and sugar reaction is done. Pour into the gallon jug and fill to within 2” from top. The flies crawl in and drown.
Cheapest solution ever.
Oh my gosh! That whole jar was slap full of flies?!? Ew!!
Hah, yes, one of the most vulgar things I’ve dealt with thus far, but it works!
Can you feed the flies to the chickens.
You can, yes, but we don’t. What your chickens eat, you eat through their eggs. While the fly attractant isn’t toxic, people wouldn’t want to eat it. We dispose of the flies in other ways and give our chickens healthier treats instead.
I use fans to control flies. In the heat of the day it helps keep the barn cool – but neither mosquitoes nor flies can fly through the breeze the fan creates. I got this idea from restaurants and stores. They often have an overhead fan blowing at their entrance – when I was told the reason for the fan, a light bulb turned on.
My barn has 2 main entrances and 1 small one chicken-sized door. I have an ordinary 19″ box fan blowing at all 3 entrances. Screens are tacked up over the windows.
My barn is occupied by Nubian goats, chickens, a very large black snake (rodent control), and 2 cats. I milk my goats twice a day inside the barn. To avoid feeding wildlife, all feeding is inside the barn but the barn is open 24/7/365. I do get the occasional fly, but the fans do an excellent job of keeping the barn fly free with a bonus of keeping the barn cooler as well.
That’s a great idea, Nancy! I’ve seen box fans set up in barns a lot, it’s great that they’re a dual purpose tool. We might have to try your tactic next summer if the flies get out of control again! Thanks for stopping by!
about the snake though, how do you make it not to eat the chicken, mind sharing
zillion thanks
I use food grade DE in my run as well as using it to dust the poop board when I clean it. I made a shaker with holes poked into the top and put DE in it to shake into the crevices of the nesting boxes. I checked before I started to make sure that it was ok for a compost pile which was going to be used in the garden, The DE kept down all of the flying varmits down all spring and summer.
That shaker is such a great idea! We use DE in the run and coop as well, I definitely want to make a shaker this summer so it’s easier to apply!
What’s your source for food grade DE?
Hi Theresa,
We buy it at our local garden center. Sometimes you can find it at Lowe’s or Home Depot as well, and failing that, order it on Amazon!
I found a really good buy on Diatomaceous Earth. Perma-Guard brand. Food grade and OMRI listed at new country organicsin Waynesboro, VA. As of today, The price is $28.00 for 50lbs. This is the white kind, fine like flour. Tractor supply has Red Lake Earth Diatomaceous Earth with Calcium Bentonite, 40 lb. $19.99. Red Lake Earth is for use in feeds as an anticaking agent or pelleting aid for further manufacturing in feed.
I actually prefer the Red Lake. It is a coarser product and one that I use especially for the coop area. I also mix it into their dust bath. Great for keeping mites, lice and fleas off. Makes for easier scrapping off poop. I use this as a dewormer too. Even use it on my dog. Great stuff.
I buy 40lb from local feed & tack for $16. Red Lake Earth DE. Most reasonable price I could find & I like to support local businesses.
Tractor supplies carry the DE the large bag is worth the money. It must be kept dry. I use a plastic bin you can also use a tablespoon per chicken in the feeder to prevent worms and parasites. They are very helpful and can answer most questions they also carry the fly trap and bait. Good luck.
I had a problem with flies this summer also and did a bit of research regarding herbs. I hung a few fly tapes from the farm store (the kind my in-laws use on the farm) and then snipped a handful of peppermint, basil and rosemary all over the bedding and nesting boxes and run along with a good dusting of diat. earth and it worked great. Pretty soon the flies subsided and I didn’t have to replace the tape and ended up just snipping basil over the bedding and nesting boxes and it kept the flies completely away.
That’s so cool Anna! Thanks for sharing! I’ve heard of using herbs to keep flies at bay but I’ve never heard any success stories with it. If we ever have enough extra basil to spread around the coop I’ll try that this summer. I don’t know though…caprese salad is a mega favorite around here…
Wow sounds like it worked well! I’ll have to keep that in mind. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’ve been using the captivator trap and it works amazingly well. I can’t help but think that all of those dead flies would be a nice protein source for the chickens. Do you know if the attractant renders the flies inedible? The attractant t is labeled as having no insecticide, but of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that it would be safe for the chickens to consume. What do you think?
Hi Mike,
I’m so glad the trap is working well for you! I honestly don’t know if it would be okay for your chickens to eat the dead flies. From what I understand, the attractant contains fly sex pheromones, which shouldn’t be toxic, but I haven’t a clue what else would be in there. My chickens pick the flies off our sticky traps and eat them, but we’ve never given them ones from the captivator. It did say on the bottle that the flies are great for your compost though, so I would think if it’s good for compost it’s fine for chickens, but I couldn’t say for sure. Sorry I’m not more of a help, maybe you can try calling or emailing the company and they could give you some straight answers. Good luck and good chicken keeping!
I don’t know if you ever got an answer. But, I only used the attractant the first few times I emptied it. Since then I have used a bit of raw meat or some wet pet food in the trap with excellent results. If you put somethings different in to attract flies you would know exactly what your chicks are eating. Hope this helps!
My chickens will not eat flies dead or alive. They pretty much know what is safe to eat.
This is the fly trap we have been using. Its VERY effective but with a couple downsides. One, its pricey. Much pricier than the ones you listed both for the trap and the bait. Two, it attracts my garden “good bugs” like spiders and preying mantids to feast on the trapped flies, unfortunately trapping and eventually killing them as well. I’m looking for alternatives so thanks for your post. I’m gonna check out the two traps you posted and the basil/rosemary idea. We have tried D.E. but, didn’t do much for our fly problem but maybe these others will be more effective.
I have ducks and I order fly predators (larva that turn into teeny tiny non stinging wasps) that don’t allow the flies to hatch. I get them from Spaulding Labs. I also crush basil daily and put it in with the shavings in the duck night shed. Don’t know if it helps (read somewhere it is supposed to) but it smells good. And I clean out the duck house and runs daily and put that in the compost pile covered with a little fresh straw or shavings. The fly predators are expensive (about 90$ for the season) so I may try the fly capitvator (and make my husband empty it-ew)
Is there a reason they can’t be fed to the chickens??I mean you can buy plastic jars full of dead centipedes,why not flys??
Hi Susan,
I’m honestly totally unsure if you can feed them to the chickens. There is a chemical attractant that you use in these traps, which draws the flies into the container. It says it’s non toxic, but since I have no idea what it’s made from I’m uncomfortable feeding the flies to the chickens. I mean, there are plenty of things that are non toxic that I’d still rather not eat. I thin it’s a judgement call though, or you could try calling the company and asking them what they think!
We have to use the traps mentioned above and predators. Now granted we have 3 horses 3 sheep 13 chicken 4 duck 4 dogs and 2 cats, so we have lots of animals on our farm. The predator are not too pricy if you shop around and if you buy a certain amount and can get free shipping ect.
Thanks for the tip Natalie! I would love to try fly predators but haven’t found the money to continuously pay for them. The traps we use are cheap and re-usable so we’ve stuck with them. If I can find predators for a reasonable enough price I’ll definitely try them out!
Reading about your concerns about the attractant being bad for the chickens. Will all the flies even get in contact with it? If it is only a thing that attracts them, and then they die because they are in the jar should not make them bad?
The attractant is a liquid that goes right into the water in the trap, so it definitely comes into contact with the flies.
“I mean you can buy plastic jars full of dead centipedes,why not flys??”
Where do you buy plastic jars full of centipedes? I have never seen anything like that in the US. Do you perhaps mean mealworms? I have seen jars full of mealworms for sale…
I’ve tried lots of fly traps. Every one I saw. I’m curious. .does this one that you’re discussing stink? Every fly attracting trap I ever used or saw smelled so bad that I could barely stand it being around.!
The fly trap does stink when it fills up with flies and sits for awhile, any trap full of dead insects and water will reek if left alone for long enough. However, if you empty this trap weekly it will not have time to get to that stinky point, and in my opinion it’s worth the effort if it means no flies!
I have really bad fly issues with my ducks this year and bought the fly attractant and it smells like a rotting corps. it’s terrible
After my first experience with flies right after getting my girls, I was a googling fool. I found numerous post of people using those ugly Christmas tree air fresheners (yellow vanilla scented) so of to Walmart I went and bought every pack they had. I hung three of them in there and within a day, viola ITS A MIRCLE, NO FLIES and two years later, still no problem. Once the scent starts to fade, I replace them with 3 new ones. Apparently, flies don’t like to scent of vanilla and it seems to be true in this case 🙂
That’s so awesome Laurie!! I’m totally trying that in the summer. Thanks for the hot tip! 🙂
Do your chickens peck at the air fresheners? Are the air fresheners in the coop or outside?
Feed the flies in the flytrap to the chickies.
Another method that works well, at least it did for when I raised rabbits is to put vanilla extract, or even imitation vanilla extract in their water supply. It used to cut down on the smell as well as keep the flies away. Another way to keep the flies away is to use a thick bedding of sand in the coop and run. The chickens will scratch over the poop with the sand, drying it out and making the coop less smelly also helping to keep the flies away.
That’s a great tip Jennifer, thanks for sharing!!
We use sand in our run with a little DE sprinkled in and have no problems with flies!
I’m so upset. My girl’s have what appears as pox…we suddenly have a fly issue. ..assuming it is from the fly infestation. I was really wanting to give up this mini farm, but opened pinterest tonight and this was the 1st thing I see. I’m pumped. I’m going to buy those ugly vanilla Christmas trees…fly Traps. …sand. ..and pluck lots of rosemary. Thank you! Now got healing my girl’s. ???? Help! ? I rubbed each comb with cutip…coconut oil blended with essential oil, lavender essential oil & vx…I’ve read it will have to run its course. ..thank you for any advice on this. Shanna
Paint the POX with iodine with a small artist’s brush. I’ve cured a couple doves with this treatment. Iodine is cheep and readily available.
That jar is naaaaaasty. I have flies in our coop but I counted maybe 4. And these tiny black bugs in the sand
I use Sweet PDZ, also used for horse stalls. It dries the moisture, reduces odor, cuts down on flies and is safe or composting. I throw a few handfuls around every few days and it is more effective than I ever imagined!
What is Sweet PDZ??? I just got a pet Rooster and am getting about 10 chickens in a week, adult girls. I am making my own Coop and everything, having a blast by the way doing it. Am getting tons of ideas from this site, can’t wait to try the Christmas Vanilla hangers and the basil and the everything else…Ha Ha Ha….Love learning….Maggie
flies hate pine sol. Maybe try cleaning area with that
Also, I have tilted fan with pan of water under. Fan flow pushes flies into water and they drown.
I have sand in my coop, takes about 10- 15 minutes to clean up every morning, Stays dry , also in my outdoor run keep all mud out of coop, always have folks ask me where did the flies go, my nest boxes have easy pick shavings and DE.
Hi, I have purchased many things that should work in theory but in reality are sadly lacking…I believe in your endorsement of this product…having said that I was excited to hit the purchase button but when I tried to add the attractant I sadly find it doesn’t ship to Canada…does anyone know I can obtain the attractant here in Alberta?
I’m so sorry they aren’t working for you! These products have worked well for everyone I’ve talked to, I’m sorry they don’t ship to Canada, that’s a big bummer! I suggest going to a garden center or farm/feed store near you and asking if they have attractant, most of them carry them, and they could even look into ordering this brand for you. I hope you can find something that works, flies are SO frustrating!
You can place a small square of beef in some water, it will attract flies in short order. Once you trap flies they themselves will attract more flies. When dumping leave some of th flies in the jar, don add more water.
I have chickens and ducks and do not have a fly problem. I simply hang a few gallon size ziploc bags around my coop half full of water. In that water I add a couple tablespoons of Baking soda and a few pennies. It works wonders in keeping flies away. I use this same method to keep flies away when I’m camping or fishing or picnicking.
I like this idea. How do you hang your gallon baggies?
we use the same traps but our local feed store(s) regularly run out of the refills so I tried chicken poop and water… works great and then I’m not concerned with feeding the flies to my girls!
I’m always interested in just about anything that has to do with chickens. We’re so close to moving to our bigger homestead where I’ll be able to have chickens that I find myself soaking up as much information as possible! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! It’ll definitely help me when the time comes!
I don’t have a farm but I have six cats three litter boxes. In the summer, folks going in and out of the house leave the door open, letting in tons of flies.
I use these little tubes of sticky fly strips that spiral out of the tube when you pull them out. The flies congregate under the lights over both my breakfast table and dinner table so I hung the strips from the light fixtures. In minutes they were full of flies, so I had to put new ones up right away. Fortunately they come four to a box and I had bought two boxes.
This works rather well in the house. I can see where you would need something considerably bigger for outside.
I see that you wrote this article a couple of years ago, but I just got into the backyard chicken “hobby” and read this article yesterday (while at work — sh-h-h).
After work, I made a beeline for my local farm supply store and bought 2 Captivator Fly Traps and some extra attractant. This thing is FANTASTIC!
I set one in the vicinity of my deck (though not on it), where flies have made sitting out with or without a drink or snack impossible all summer, and one about 10 feet from my chicken coop/run (I only have 4 5-week-old pullets, so it’s a small setup). Within minutes the jug by the deck was being swarmed by flies! I managed to sit out with an uncovered glass of wine by my side to watch them and didn’t have a single one come near me.
Your advice has found a new fan in Tulsa!!
Thanks so much!
I use sand in my run. It breaks down the waste rapidly. About twice a year I mix in a $10 bag of PDZ. We have no flies, and no smell. I also use PDZ in the coop catchment and simply scoop it into a bucket every morning with a litter scoop. My coop is about 15 feet from my patio, and it is such a pleasure to see and hear my 5 girls with none of the usual negative aspects of keeping chickens!
Whow! I start keeping chicken next september and surely will read and follow all these tips. Thanks!
Save the $7 for the attractant and the next time you cook some chicken for dinner, cut off some of the excess fat from the edges and drop those pieces into the trap. After a day it will start to smell funky and you will get flies galore. Just keep some water in there to kill the flies.
I’ve used this with the milk jug topper style, the soda bottle style and there type you show here. Works better than the store bought attractant.
Very smart idea, thanks for sharing!
This may sound like a dumb question but I’m trying to learn how all I can about homesteading so I can get out of this city and go back to my roots… with the caught dead flies, couldn’t you feed them to the chickens? I thought chickens ate bugs?
You technically CAN feed them back to the chickens as the bait is non-toxic, but we don’t do it. I get skeeved out about feeding them to the birds, flies carry disease and are terribly filthy. When the jug needs to be emptied it smells so bad that a big whiff of it is enough to make you woozy. I like to keep in mind that whatever my chickens eat, I’ll eat through their eggs and meat, so I don’t go out of my way to feed them really nasty stuff. If they eat a few live flies on their own, that’s okay, but I won’t feed them a whole jug of decomposing flies.
I have great success mixing a couple of ounces of apple cider vinegar. And about the same amount of both vanilla extract and Pine-Sol with about an ounce or two of barn and stable spray for flies into a 1-gallon sprayer and leave Outdoors. I spray about every other day and managed to keep the flies at bay. I do this while the girls are outside
Wow – I have really enjoyed reading all of the feedback and the original post. My husband and I are moving to a small “farm” where I hope to have about 4 hens (no rooster) and this information is extremely helpful. Thank you!
I use hanging fly traps and also spray beneficial nematodes all over using a hose-end sprayer. They are microorganisms that kill the larva of flies, fire ants, mosquitos, grubs, etc.Doing this a few times a year for a few years is a huge help getting rid of a lot of pests naturally.
We have horses, dogs and chickens. Commercial chicken farms use Agita 10wt. A bait and killer for the flies. Discovered it this year. Keeps the flies way way down. It beats our misting system in the barn, the fly bags and stickie tapes I’ve used for years.
Our chicken COOP has sand floor with DE. DE works till it gets wet. Then it’s just mud. I like the vanilla idea. Gonna give that a shot too.
Charlie, Thanks for sharing your experience! Agita 10wt sounds like a great solution for fly control. I hope the vanilla trick works well for you in addition to your other methods.