Safe Mosquito and Tick Control: Raise Chickens, Guineas or Ducks
(Page 3 of 4)
June/July 2009
By MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers
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Natural Tick Control
We moved to a lowland place three years ago and had a major wood tick problem. We removed a number of ticks from our golden retriever, and after applying poison around the baseboard of the bathroom (which I don’t like to do), I collected seven to 10 dead ticks every day.
We had nine Orpington hens in a coop, and brooded a couple dozen Wyandottes in the barn that spring. When it came time to move the chicks to the coop, we allowed the older hens to range while the young chickens adjusted to the coop.
The second spring and summer, they all ranged and provided great tick control. I found a total of only three ticks in the house during that entire time (no poison required). The dog had no ticks. I mentioned this to a neighbor, who said he had no problem with ticks the previous year. Then it dawned on me — his tick control method was coming from chickens and guineas he had ranging freely all the time.
Ducks Manage More Than Pond Pests
Greedy for Grubs
Ducks are tireless consumers of slugs, snails, and a wide array of bothersome — and potentially dangerous — insects and grubs, including (but not limited to) mosquito pupae, Japanese beetle larvae, potato beetles and grasshoppers. In localities plagued by liver flukes, ducks can eliminate the problem by consuming the snails that are the intermediate host of this troublesome parasite of mammals. With the variety of diseases that mosquitoes can spread among avian and mammalian species, the duck’s ability to control mosquitoes at the non-feeding pupa stage is significant.
Dave Holderread
Holderread Waterfowl Farm & Preservation Center
Corvallis, Oregon
Ducks for Slug Control
Even if ducks did not lay eggs or provide endless amusement, they would be an asset in our garden. They spend their days patrolling for slugs and other small hindrances.
In the spring, summer and early fall when there are a lot of salad crops being planted, they must be fenced out of the vegetable garden. But if you can give them free rein of the perimeter, they will keep pests from creeping in. Later in the year, when most plants are full-grown, you can give them the run of the place, and they’ll clean it up with great thoroughness. In the orchard they make short work of insects such as plum curculio that fall to the ground.
