Flies in the Coop: Causes, Prevention, and Control

What Flies Are Really Telling You About Your Chicken Coop

Flies are more than just an annoyance—they're often an indicator of what's happening in your coop and run. In this Poultry Nerds Podcast clip, we discuss why flies are attracted to chickens, the environmental conditions that encourage them, and practical management strategies to reduce fly populations.

Whether you keep a small backyard flock or manage a larger operation, understanding the root causes of fly problems can help you create a healthier environment for your birds while making your coop a more enjoyable place to work.

This episode covers:

• Why flies are attracted to chicken coops
• Common causes of fly infestations
• Management practices that reduce fly breeding
• Practical tips for long-term fly control

If you enjoy this discussion, be sure to listen to the full Poultry Nerds Podcast for more science-based conversations on poultry health, management, and husbandry.

Valley Hatchery is a proud sponsor of Poultry Nerds, find more at ValleyHatchery.com

Transcript

Jennifer 0:00

So here's a fun fact. Okay. How long do you think it takes to go from egg to flying around for a fly? What do you think that period is? Two weeks or so. 7 to 10 days- Holy moly on average. Literally a small problem on Monday can be a big problem the next Monday. Wow. Welcome back, Poultry Nerds. And if you are not watching us on video, you need to stop and load up the video and look at Carey. Oh my gosh. What? Look at yourself. You've got your- your feathers in the background with your orange and your yellow, and you have an orange shirt on, and so it looks like you're part of the feathers. Yeah, I'm just blending in. I mean, when you move and the screen changes, it looks like you're part of the chickens. And so really all I can see is, your head moving. I'm blended in. So before we- It's my camo so before we started recording he's "So what are you gonna say first?" And I was like, "I am not gonna tell you 'cause I'm gonna catch you off guard." Yeah, and when that happens, it's like a box of chocolates 'cause you never know what you're gonna get with Jennifer. I know. So, well, how is it going with the- the store opening? You still getting lots of orders? Today's been crazy. Yeah I had a whole lot of stuff planned to do, and I got less than half of it done because we got really busy. It was one thing after another. Got... Just quite a bit of feed got moved out today. Some folks picked up some Aluma Coupes, gotta get those delivered next week. So yeah, it's moving right along. And you haven't even had your grand opening yet. I know. Okay. So today- Today we have, and I know we've been saying this an awful lot here lately, but we have yet another listener request. So Brian emailed me and he said, or texted me, and he said, I need help with my fly problem. It's hot, it's humid, the flies are carrying on, and I need you to tell me what you do." So I was like, "Well, let's just do a podcast about that." And, you know, I feel like every poultry keeper's dealt with flies at some point. Oh, w- Everybody has at least a few. And if you have more than just some, if you got a few chickens- Yeah and you dealt with a few flies, but the more animals you have this time of year, the more flies you got. Well, believe it- It's a huge problem believe it or not, when we moved to this property in 2020, this was an old dairy farm, and they had let it grown up and had an old barn and some silos and stuff, and somebody took those down. I did not, 'cause I would have left them. But even when we just had a handful of birds when we moved here, the flies were horrendous. Like- I bet horrible. Just I guess in the, they were in the ground,. I don't know. Yeah. When you have cattle, like that brings on a whole new level of flies- to the point that there is feed additives that are safe for consumption, but they- Make it to where they don't, the flies don't be around 'em gotcha. Yeah I'm not a big fan of that kind of stuff, but I did feel bad for the cows this morning and, and gave 'em a dusting of permethrin. They weren't real happy, and Mabel tried to kick me actually, but I had never done it before. Need a Super Soaker, Super Soaker Well, it's a powder, but- you gotta get the liquid you gotta- Get the liquid have a- Put it in a Super Soaker. Uh, my son, he will take whatever Super Soaker type water gun my grandson has by this time of year, and he'll mix it up, get a, a big old container of it, and they'll get on the side-by-side. And my grandson loves it 'cause Holden gets to just shoot the cows- with his water gun. But that's how they, they do it. Oh, interesting. There's- I may have to try that you could also on the more natural side- garlic, lots of garlic. Well, I had tried something you recommended last year. They weren't crazy about it. They did finally eat it all, but I, I couldn't tell a difference with them. So I did buy one of those socks and somebody sent me a recipe for, like, a homemade thing to soak it in- Mm-hmm that, you know, where they walk under it and it rubs on their backs. Yeah, yeah. I remember as a kid, and I just need to call my dad, he used to put diesel fuel and something else in it. I don't know if we should say that out loud. Transmission fluid But the cows would walk under it and it wasn't a problem. Yeah. The, uh, that, my granddaddy did that. He had it, like, at the opening of the barn- Mm-hmm and when they'd go, you know, they'd do their head down and it would rub over their back. It was like a, what? 10, 12-foot-long tube sock. And it worked. I remember him pouring diesel on it, but it seems like he poured something else and I just, I don't know what that other thing was. So I don't know. I'll have to- Transmission fluid I'll have to ask him and see if he remembers. So- I don't think it is. It is transmission fluid. With diesel? Yeah. Well, I don't know about this then. It, it gives it, it gives it more of a oily base- Oh to where, you know, they, they go under it, it, the, it gets on their back, and the rain doesn't wash it off really fast. Gotcha. But it doesn't irritate their skin, so- Well, they've been- works getting in the pond rolling around, so I don't know if I want that in the pond. You know, you have to think about everything, so Yeah. And I err to the more natural, so I don't know. So anyway- Put garlic on it We'll see. We'll see, 'cause I ate the Celadons, so I don't know how much I want on there. But I made this fancy slideshow. I'm really, like, upping my game with Canva. Canva should watch out 'cause- y- you've been wearing it out pretty bad lately. I do. I, like, have- But- 10 screens open right now with Canva you can do so much- in one place. So- Yeah. I don't know they should sponsor the show. Yeah, they should. Hey, that would be really cool if we could get that top tier thing with all the credits Contact us. Yeah. Okay, so they're really a nuisance. They're, they bite. The big green ones bite. I was gonna say, like, with flies, it goes way beyond being annoying. Yeah. They get in your drink. Because they transmit... They're like mechanical movers- of everything bacteria, pathogen-related from their animal m- manure. We'll use that word. Anything that's dead. Anything that spills. Everything. They get on it, they touch it, the bacteria's growing on it, then they, you know, they fly and they go somewhere and light. They light on your face, they light in your lap, on your hair, on your drink, everywhere. I know. It's annoying. Super. So you did bring up a good point. They do carry a lot of bacteria. Mm-hmm. And if there's too many of them, they can actually cause stress to the animals. So- I bet. They cause stress to me So when I first started in quail, that first year, flies were really bad, but I figured out pretty quickly how to manage them. And you know I don't particularly care for chemicals, and so I don't use any, but I'm gonna share with everybody what I do here. But first, you have to understand the fly. So a fly swatter will just kill the adult. It actually won't- They don't live forever. Yeah, it's not gonna help. So the adult's not really, they're not the ones you should worry about. So the maggots, like, I was moving some cat food yesterday, and the whole bottom of the dish was full of maggots. Anything oily... I know. Yeah. But that was just cat food, so anything oily, meaty, has a smell, you know, they're gonna lay their eggs in there, right? Or they'll lay their eggs anywhere they can. So- Um, so just you have to watch out for where they're laying their eggs, which is the maggots, which look like little white worms, for lack of a better word, and then they pupate into the adult fly. And- And those, those aren't black soldier flies. No, these are regular houseflies. Yeah. I have a whole slide on black soldier flies. Okay. And then but then they're laying, you know, I mean, they're big enough to start laying within two weeks. I mean, it's a- Oh, yeah it's a very quick cycle they, they're about like rab- rabbits when it comes to the reproductive system. It's quick. Yep. So what they're looking for is moisture, manure, warm, humid. What else? So basically anything that is anywhere outside this time of year south of Oklahoma Oh no for sure Especially with all the rain we've been getting. And what's really crazy is, like, so you're in middle Tennessee, I'm in middle Alabama. We have both been getting hammered with rain. Just recently we came off of, like, what? A two-week stint where it only didn't rain one, maybe two days. And I have- Wow a friend of mine that lives in South Carolina, and they are 19 inches short of their average rainfall this time of year Well, I'm s- in my area right here- Like, you can have mine I'm still technically in a drought. Yeah. The pond's probably only about half full. So that line of rain that you're talking about was like- Well, I don't know if we're- the south end of the county I don't know if we're still in a drought or not. It wouldn't surprise me if somebody tried to claim it. But literally the... After that period of time where it stopped enough to where the grass could dry, the grass that is downhill from my outdoor quail cages- was probably two feet tall. Wow. Nobody would go back there because they were afraid of snakes. So- All right 'cause one of the, one of the kids saw one. So back to the flies. So we, m- moisture really is, I think, the biggest attractant. Dry manure, dry litter doesn't really attract them. Mm-hmm. So when you find the maggots or the eggs, if you turn it over, it's probably in a moist spot. Yeah. So, like, if you have a lot of flies in your chicken coop, you need to turn it over and get some air under there and get it dried out. Yeah. Use stall pellets, use ag lime. People, and I know what will happen here is people will message me and ask me if they're buying the right lime, and I don't mind if you do, but the best rule of thumb here is when you go to the store, the lime that you want is the cheap one. It's $4 for 50 pounds, and if it's $15 for 50 pounds, it's the wrong one. It will burn their feet. So in this case, cheaper is better. So it's just- You- ag lime yeah, you want, look on the bo- look, not on the box. Look on the bag. Bag. What you're looking for is limestone. If it's limestone or calcium carbonate- one of those, that's what you want. If it says anything about magnesium, high mag, anything like that, you don't want it. Mm-hmm. Because as soon as it hits moisture, it's gonna be like fire. And you don't need that stuff that comes in the black bag that's like $25 for five pounds because that's- You don't need to get on the, the auto-ship for that that's ag lime with what, some orange extract or something. So just repackage- It's gold $5 ag lime. Um- and look I'm not gonna hate on those people because- I'm getting chills that's, that is a great business model. But for our listeners that we love and we like- you don't have to spend that kind of money on that. Go- I have never bought a bag, never used it, never smelled it, never looked at it. Like physically looked at it online. Go, go to Tractor Supply. It's in a brown paper sack. Looks just like the paper bags you used to get at the grocery store. It's got blue writing on it. It's heavy. I- yeah, it's heavy, like a ba- like a bag of concrete. And it's $4 and change. Yep. With inflation, it might be five. Or maybe 20. All it is is crushed limestone- Limestone, yeah which is what Tennessee is built on. So- Yeah but anyway, so back to the point, you have to dry your property out. So my chicken coops do not have flies. The only part of my property that has some flies would be Mount Poopmore. I was gonna say, I guarantee you there's some swirling and hovering around Mount Poopmore. Not very many. I don't have very many now. I mean, they're on the cows, but anywhere else, I don't have very many. Um- Did they tell you the best way to get rid of flies? Ducks. Okay, that gets rid of the larva, but- Which gets rid of the flies the survivors that fly all over the place- bats. Yeah, I can't attract any. Like, we have one. So you can actually get on the worldwide web and order bat houses- and bat attractant pheromones. Oh. I, I was like, "Yep, they do that for this?" Wow. Got that, put those suckers up on a pole out in the edge of the property at the tree line where it gets dark, sprayed it, then stood the pole up in the hole they were starting to get to it within a couple of weeks. Wow. We're gonna have to try that. Yep. Business expense. There you go. Research and development. Yep. And so you wanna control the flies because first of all, for your own comfort level, for the bird- Yeah comfort level, and so your neighbors don't hate you. Yeah, that, you know, typically the, the main thing that people complain about when they complain about you having poultry is the roosters and the flies. Yeah. So- keep your poop clean, dry. Dry and it, it'll keep 'em down. This isn't, this is a big topic, but it's not a complicated topic. Um, dry is the answer. So- It's probably one of the easiest things to manage on a farm. You know- It is a lot of everything is management. But this requires very little work, and doing the things that you need to do to keep the manure dry, the ground dry, and that bacteria down to help get rid of the flies is also gonna make for much healthier animals. So we talk about in our breeding podcast about just observing your birds. Like if you're having a problem, observe 'em and figure out who the bully is or, like, where they're getting their head stuck or something. In this particular case, you're gonna sit around and look for flies and see where they're landing and congregating and coming from. Mm-hmm. And most likely you're going to find them either wet manure, leaking waters, feed spills, compost piles, or if you have dead birds. So here's a fun fact. Okay. How long do you think it takes to go from egg to flying around for a fly? What do you think that period is? Two weeks or so. 7 to 10 days- Holy moly on average. Literally a small problem on Monday can be a big problem the next Monday. Wow. Yes. Yeah. So, like, when you said your water was down if you go to a Hispanic grocery store and you go around to the back door, they get their cactus- Are they leaves? Plants? Mm-hmm. What, what are you talking about? Leaves. I don't know what they're called. Oh, I know now- Blades? what you're talking about, those containers. Yeah, they're baskets. They're little, cheap, flimsy baskets- but that's what those cactus', I don't know what they're called, like, the cactus, I don't... Are they blades or leaves or...? Hey, look, we're- I'm- we're poultry nerds. We're not the cactus nerds. I don't know. I watched a reel this morning, it's a rabbit hole. I watched a reel this morning about how they extract the giant cactuses out of the ground in Arizona, and they have to have permits like they're hunting deer out there for these cactuses. Oh, yeah, they're protected. Okay. So anyway, so go behind the stores, and they usually just pile them up in for free. You can just go get them at least the ones here. But always check with the store. Don't take my word for it. I was gonna say, you got to at least go inside- and- Ask them look at, look for a cooler to see if they got some Hornitos. Get the pineapple one. It's really good. And the best hot sauce in the world is Salsa Valentin. Grab you a bottle of that, and then just ask them, "Hey, what do y'all do with your baskets whenever y'all are done with them? Do y'all throw them away or whatever?" And you know, they'll tell you where they are. That'd be great. Go get you a couple of them. Yep. Put your waters on them. Yep, turn them upside down. So the airflow, right? And then the water on top of them, and that way it keeps any moisture from being trapped in on the ground underneath your bucket, your water, whatever it is that you're using. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I do, I call them half crates, but same concept. That's what I do if I'm using buckets or waters- Yeah or just move it around. The brooders, you have to do the same thing in there. Make- I u- like, the stall pellets in there because it absorbs the moisture, turns to sawdust, and it, the, it stays dry that way. But I always move the water from corner to corner. Um, and then you can t- I have a, a dull, it's on purpose, it was made this way, but it's a dull putty knife. I don't know why you would ever want a dull putty knife, but I don't know what... The, I'm sure there's a purpose for it, but I don't know what it is. Um, I just use that, and I stir up the stall pellets to make sure any moisture, mold, anything in there, 'cause you'll find maggots underneath of waterers if you're not careful. Yeah. And that's gross. It is. It is. And then you've got to change all the bedding, and yuck. So- So what I do is, you know, my brooders aren't big enough, w- well, a lot of them aren't, that you could do that. So I use... Well, I rip two-by-fours in half with my table saw, and I'll make a square s- about a foot square and go over it with hardware cloths and staple that down. And that also helps keep their- dirt, whatever from getting on their feet and getting in the water 'cause I really don't know why, but they like to get in the water. Well, I guess they're like kids, they like to play in the water. Well, you've got these neat new waterers you need to, like, put that on a, put 'em on your website and sell 'em because they're neat, and then you won't have that problem. So- Yeah, I'm, I'm, like, gonna test out a brooder set-up with that going through it and see how that works. Yeah. People always wanna hear about your water system, so you need to finish that. So stopping them before they hatch is the best, best thing to do. Mm-hmm. Keep your litter dry, repair your water leaks, clean up food spills, um, remove carcasses as quickly as you can and, of course, improve your drainage. Basically the same thing you would be doing for mosquitoes if you had issues with mosquitoes. Mosquitoes, keep down disease, anything like that. Just manage the ground. Did you h- I, I heard on the news yesterday that mosquitoes are, like, the number one killer of people and animals. So yeah, you need to make sure there's no water, like, trapped anywhere and buckets upside down. Um, we're gonna do another podcast on it, but since we're kinda, like, touching on it now, mosquitoes carry fowlpox. Mm-hmm. And so make sure that while you're drying out for your flies, you're also drying out for mosquitoes. Make sure there's no water trapped anywhere. Um, yeah. So mechanical controls would be something that I would use since I don't like chemicals. Fly traps and sticky traps. I actually have a pretty sticky trap on my kitchen counter. How do you have a pretty sticky trap? It looks like a cylinder. It's tall. It's about the size of, like, a small roll of paper towels, like a half of a roll when you have one left, and it's pretty. It has, like, all these different colors on it. And when a fly sticks to it, you can't see it because of all the colors, but you can hear him going bzz, 'cause he can't get off. And so they get- Then what is he doing? Bzz. And so you can leave it on the kitchen counter as long as your grandkids don't go, "What is that, Grandma?" and grabs it. No. And then you- No use olive oil to get the sticky off the kid. To get it off. That makes sense So yeah, so use sticky traps. They still do make fly tape. Remember when your granny had fly tape hanging- Yep in front of the fans? Just hanging. They do still make that. The only place I can find it is on Amazon. Of course, I don't go to very many stores, but it's on Amazon. They're cheap. They're like a dollar a piece, um, and then you just throw them away. But it seem, you know, my hair's gotten kind of long, and it seems like no matter where I hang them, my hair gets into them, so I try not to do that. And then my biggest thing is fans. So in the quail barn, my cages, you know, are lined up and I have an alleyway between them, like to work in, and I have... What is that, about a five-foot fan? Probably. Four-foot, four-foot fan. Something- Big 50 inches, somewhere around in there. Um, and it's a big mama jama. It's a big floor fan. We bought it off of Marketplace several years ago. And I just, I have it on low, it has two settings, and it just blows through the alleyway. So it's not like, like blowing right on the quail or the chicks because otherwise they would be up against the cage, you know? And so, yeah, they're just blowing through the alleyway. And that a- air movement, the flies can't navigate the air movement so much. Yeah. Um, well, I mean, you know, they're, they're this big- and the air's flowing pretty good. It's an air tunnel. Yeah. So try to use some fans, keep the air moving, which also, of course, helps keep everything dry because- Dry, yeah yeah. 'Cause, you know, I drag the hose around to fill the waters and, uh, it leaks. Um, I have bought I don't know how many freaking hoses I have bought, but you can't find one that doesn't leak. I swear you can't. And, um, so I just give up and it, the fan just dries the floor. I just give up on the stupid... I mean, you get a really good hose and you're good for- A minute? Yeah. Maybe a week- whatever. 'Cause with me having so much automated around my yard for water, I have learned that the only way you can avoid any of that is buy a top-notch, very heavy-duty, way overkill hose pipe- But that's only gonna get you from, like, a week to two weeks. So walking your yard, looking at stuff, maintenance, you gotta do it. You know, I, I don't know, how does a hose pipe develop a pinhole leak- that shoots water five feet in the air- and it's just sitting there? I don't know. I don't know. Like, I've had, I've had goats chew them- and that's bigger than a pinhole leak. W- where did this come from? I was out there with the pressure washer the other day, and I texted David, and I was like, "Is it possible that I could own one hose that doesn't leak, that doesn't kink, and works?" Yeah. And he goes, "I will go get you one." And he said, "How long do you want it?" Oh, and it has a end on it. I don't know, we have, like, 80 hoses with no ends on them. Well, that's the first thing that leaks. Sorry. And then when you use the repair kit to fix it, that works great for a little while, but, you know, it'll get kind of loose, and you won't cut the water off, and then you find it leaking again because that thing shot 10 feet in the air, and you don't know where it is. So- Yeah I mean, it's a whole thing. So he goes and he gets me an eight-foot hose, which is all I needed from the spigot to- Yeah the press- the electric pressure washer that I've had for, like, five years. He hooks it up, or I hook it up, and turn it on, and it's great. It's got water. And then all of a sudden the front of the pressure washer shoots water out of it and it dies. So he had to go buy me a new pressure washer. Nice. Yeah. Did he get you a battery powered one? He did. No, it's electric still, but it's the biggest one. But all I care about is that when I pull the trigger, it stays pressurized. Because every single time that it, that other one would lose pressure, and then it would get pressure, and it would lose pressure, and it would get pressure. Oh, that's so annoying. That is so annoying. And I w- that's probably why it was leaking out the front, because I'd get so mad I'd beat on it. Oh yeah, that'll fix it. Well, it was already broke, who cares? Okay. So this slide is chemicals, which of course I don't have a lot of information on. But what I do see people doing on Facebook that drives me crazy is putting the granules in their poop trays for the quail, which just ends up in the trash, in the compost pile, in the landfill, wherever. And that's the ground, you know, and we don't need that stuff in the ground. So please don't do that. I don't know, it just drives me crazy. It's annoying. I don't know that you can spray anything that kills them, and quite honestly, if you can just keep your stuff dry, it's free. So I don't know that you really need to spend any money on chemicals. But like you said, there's some stuff you can feed the cows, the bigger animals that's supposed to help. Now, the bigger animals, you know, maybe for some relief I could see putting something on them. Yeah. But not in the poop trays. I mean, we don't need to treat compost, in, in my, in my opinion. Here's a crazy, here's a crazy idea. What? Change the poop trays out. Okay. So why do fly programs fail? Because you're spraying the adults only, you're ignoring your water leaks. Yeah. You're just ignoring the situation in general, and you're not keeping your stuff clean. Back to the mechanical, we kind of left that p- this part out. I have worked really hard here to make, like, my farm work together. And I cannot stress enough the ducks keep this place clean. I know ducks themselves poop every, like, 47 seconds, but I mean, you come here pretty often. Have you ever seen a mosquito here? No. I really don't- I think it's not happening don't think so. And how many flies are in my barn? That's probably about the only place where you do have flies. Yeah, but it's not overwhelming. Oh, no. Mm-mm. Yeah, I mean, it's, like, probably, you know, a handful. It's not bad at all. But the ducks, man, the ducks, even if you're on a small piece of land and you have a small compost pile, just get you a couple of duck hens. So- The w- the Welshies can't fly what I've thought about is I'm curious to know how my dogs would do with ducks. Because I think I can get a kiddie pool and, like, build a something around it to give them somewhere to swim. And, you know, between them and the bats, I probably wouldn't have a mosquito problem. No. So- And I'd only need, like, two or three of them if I take... The ducks are smart. So the Welshies can't fly, so you have to open gates. I don't know how they get out of the gate, but you have to open the gate for them to go back in. But when, on poop tray days- man, they are, like, milling around outside the front of the barn waiting for us to be done, and they will follow the wagon up to Mount Poopmore. And they j- Really? We dump it, and they just go to town. So yeah. So what I could do is I could put, I could get some ducks- and have their fenced-in area incorporated where my outdoor quail are. And, oh. So I don't have the new hutch outside. Completely clean. There's no flies there either The ducks just hang out 'Cause the ducks clean it up. Exactly. Cannot stress enough how beneficial the ducks are. They work the soil because they're always digging and kind of moving stuff around, but not to the point where it's destructive. They lay eggs every day. They- Everywhere laugh at all your jokes, you know. But we can go sit by the pond, n- no bugs. That, that is true, y'all. I've been over there 30, 45 minutes, and I've been over there for a couple hours, and there's no flies to speak of, no mosquitoes. And I mean- You were just here Saturday and we sat in the barn and talked. I didn't see you swatting flies there might be something to 100 ducks. Mm-hmm. Well, but we have a lot of property. So if you just lived in town and you had a garden and you had some quail and you had a little compost pile, just get you two duck hens. Let them run the property. They won't bother you, I promise. They're less trouble than that stupid cat that I have out there. I can see that. Okay, so, might have to get me a couple. So the backyard chickens, I mean, they help. They follow the cows around and they spread the manure and they eat anything out of there. Yeah. But you have to, you know, everything's in ratio, so how much land do you have? How many bugs do you have, and do your neighbors have bugs? You know, that kind of stuff. So can your, can your birds keep up, basically? Um- Well, I mean, just get a couple and try it. What do you feed ducks? I just give them- Chicken feed? all, yeah, some All Flock and close your ears, but I just throw it out on the ground. But they eat it and- they're not standing in the poop four minutes. No, four minutes. That's the only reason I don't like it when people feed on the ground, is usually because they have a, a chicken in a three-foot square. Oh, yeah, that's true. And it's wet. Yeah. So you have to the right side of this slide would be, like, for larger setups commercial setups. You have to have a lot of programs in place. Dude, I wonder, like, how much effort do they have to put into a commercial broiler house to keep the flies down? They have those big fans. Oh, yeah. They can't land. Big fans. Yeah. Um, yeah. That makes sense. Get you a fan. Save on the chemicals. Okay. So we're gonna go through this a little bit faster because I wanna get to the black soldier flies. So houseflies can travel a couple miles according to the fly experts. I don't know. I, I didn't know you could track flies. The flyperts. I don't know how to track flies, but I'm just relaying that information because I am not a fly expert. So sanitation, mechanical controls, that would be like fly strips and the fans we talked about. Yeah. Use the sprays or the fly baits, you know, if you absolutely have to. Now, not all flies are bad. The black soldier fly, I don't know if you can get black soldier flies up north. I th- because we only get them here in the heat- Yeah and then they leave for the wintertime. You need to Google what they look for. This is, like, the only pict- free picture I could find of one. But it looks You would almost think it was a wasp. It's black. It's about that much, maybe, like, an inch and a half. Mm-hmm. They don't have any eyes. They don't have a mouth. So their sole purpose is to lay eggs and then they die. Like, I think their life cycle's like 10 days or something. But those maggots, they're super cool. They are big and they're black, kinda grayish black. But they're big. Not like grub big, but getting close to grub big. And, um, when they get wet, they don't like to be wet. They will actually climb the walls, the metal walls of my breeder pens. And then I can just take a pan and hold it and just scrape 'em down and then give 'em to the chickens. The chickens will eat the ones they can reach. I was gonna say, you just have to get 'em off the wall. Yeah. Yeah. The chickens will eat up, till they can reach, but the ones that are still climbing, you know, that got away, I just scrape 'em down. But yeah. So those things, if you let... If, don't kill 'em, let them do their thing, houseflies won't bother them. They scare off the houseflies. But they can turn a pile of compost- Fast in like days, like- Yes couple days. Yep. And it's magical. There's people who actually farm them and come up with ways to harvest them. They're self-harvesting because they climb up the walls, so somehow they build these tubs and it has like a ramp, and they climb out the ramp and they fall in a bucket, and every day they collect the bucket and feed the soldier flies to their birds and stuff. Yeah. It works. So they're super cool. If you... I've tried to build 'em a few times and I couldn't quite grasp it. I'm gonna admit that I was like 60% invested in it working. But on YouTube there's a lady, she's in Africa I think, but they have a pig farm, and they compost the pig waste with the black soldier fly in these big like mosquito net things. It's super cool. You should check it out. All right. Yeah Okay. So I don't know why this is in here again, so never mind. So that was it on the flies. Yeah, flies are usually the symptom, not the problem. You, your problem is all the other stuff that we talked about with sanitation and your litter and that kind of stuff. Keep it clean- So- and it'll help reduce the numbers so I have more information on the website in the blog. Yep. Some things we didn't talk about, and I also have a e-book you can download for free, and it will have a checklist of things you can take out to your farm and go through and check and see if you can fix it and... 'cause we want you to do it for free, not spend any money on stuff- Yeah except maybe a fan Yeah And that just makes you happier 'cause you can stand in front of it. Yeah, and you won't be hot., Hope that helps. See y'all next time.