Chickens, pest control

Mammals are often overlooked for their pest-control abilities. For example, in Canadian forests, shrews control larch sawflies and other pests. Lizards and toads are important natural enemies of pest insects, and snakes can help control problems with mice and voles. In many communities in Europe and North America, farmers encourage birds to control pests by placing nesting boxes around their fields. Even domesticated animals can assist in pest control. If you have a small orchard and keep chickens, let the chickens feed in the orchard. They will peck pests such as plum curculios out of dropped fruit and other ground litter. 

Putrefied animal matter hcis formed the basis for coyote attractants of possible value in pest control programs. Thus, a putrefied fish formulation has been used as a coyote lure and, more recently, attention has been directed to a fermented aqueous suspension of chicken whole-egg powder, developed initially as an attractant for flies (48). The odor components csf this material have been subjected to detailed chemical analysis ty Bullard et al. (49) and are reported to include volatile fatty acids (77% total 13 acids identified), bases (13% total, mainly trimethylamine, 9 amines identified), and headspace volatiles, including esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, alkyl aromatics, terpenes and sulfur compounds (10% total, 76 compounds identified). Based on these data, a synthetic mixture, "synthetic fermented egg" has been formulated, composed largely of a mixture of ten volatile fatty acids (81%), together with a diverse range of amines and other compounds (50). This mixture was found to be as attractive to coyotes as the fermented preparation itself. The volatile fatty acid component alone was found to exhibit substantial coyote attractancy also (50,51). ... 

Giga, D.P. 1987. Evaluation of the insect growth regulators cyromazine and diflubenzuron as surface sprays and feed additives for controlling houseflies Musca domestica (L.) in chicken manure. Inter. Pest Contr. 29 66-69. 

Botanical sprays don t control curculios adequately. To control this pest, spread a drop-cloth beneath the tree and jar it with a padded mallet. Collect and destroy curculios that fall onto the sheet. For best results, jar the tree twice a day, beginning as soon as you see the first scarred fruit. In addition, collect and discard dropped fruit to prevent newly laid eggs from hatching. A traditional control is to keep chickens beneath the trees to consume adult curculios and grubs from fallen fruit. 

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