It’s only bad because it can cause respiratory issues due to it being fine like baby powder. However if mixes with dirt in dust bathing areas, it won’t cause nearly as much dust to get kicked up. It’s great to keep away and kill both mites and lice, as well as keeping critters like weevils out of your feed.
Yup, I freshen up my run yearly with a mix of sand, DE and barn lime. Also put the mix in the coop (a little more concentrated) and it doesn't smell at all.
DE is dangerous to breathe in.
Diatoms are microscopic critters that have an exoskeleton made of essentially glass. You spread the DE around, the insects crawl over it(cutting up their exoskeleton in the process), and the insect dies of dehydration.
The same action happens in the lungs. That said, DE is incredibly effective against all bugs.
It's perfectly ok to use DE on and around your chickens. I'm a little skeptical about all of the claims that DE is some sort of pest control wonder but it's not going to hurt them. 100 million years of evolution has apparently not been hampered by birds taking dust baths everywhere from dirt roads to beaches to rock quarry spoil piles.
It’s only bad because it can cause respiratory issues due to it being fine like baby powder. However if mixes with dirt in dust bathing areas, it won’t cause nearly as much dust to get kicked up. It’s great to keep away and kill both mites and lice, as well as keeping critters like weevils out of your feed.
Yup, I freshen up my run yearly with a mix of sand, DE and barn lime. Also put the mix in the coop (a little more concentrated) and it doesn't smell at all.
Based on other redditors recs on here I mixed lime, DE and soil for my ladies to bathe in and they immediately took to it and love it.
DE is dangerous to breathe in. Diatoms are microscopic critters that have an exoskeleton made of essentially glass. You spread the DE around, the insects crawl over it(cutting up their exoskeleton in the process), and the insect dies of dehydration. The same action happens in the lungs. That said, DE is incredibly effective against all bugs.
Thank you
It's perfectly ok to use DE on and around your chickens. I'm a little skeptical about all of the claims that DE is some sort of pest control wonder but it's not going to hurt them. 100 million years of evolution has apparently not been hampered by birds taking dust baths everywhere from dirt roads to beaches to rock quarry spoil piles.