Chickens Dust With Diatomaceous Earth

Control chicken lice by simply giving your birds a pan of diatomaceous earth — they’ll take it from there!

By Deborah Butler
June/July 2011

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It’s amazing how diatomaceous earth (DE) solved the constant lice infestation problems I was having with my small flock of chickens.

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All I did was put a pound of DE in a dishpan-size container and put it in their coop. The chickens dusted in it, and the parasite problems went away soon after. I had tried rotenone powder and bathing the chickens in tea tree oil soap — both only worked temporarily.

The bag of DE was $2.95 at our feed store and lasted at least a year. The lovely thing about this method is that the chickens take care of the dusting on their own.

Deborah Butler
Rose Prairie, British Columbia

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  • Tammy Snyder 7/27/2011 9:19:30 PM

    I am wanting to control ants and such from eating my garden but plan to get chickens and am looking for something that would be okay for the plants and the birds. I see you said they gave themselves dust baths but I've googled and found that their breathing it in when in cloud form is not good. Is this so?

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