Are chickens the best animal for...

Are chickens the best animal for insect control?  Recently moved and the property is literally crawling with cockroaches and deer ticks.  It amazes me how well these insects survive winters, but I digress.  I dont want to use chemicals, but I also want to reduce the population so they dont make my house their home. (Prob too late for that)

So what is the best animal?  Chickens, ducks, something else?
Iguanas and skinks are not an option.

We are in the mid-Atlantic region.

Thanks.

Guinea fowl have a good reputation for eating bugs, especially ticks. They can be loud, though.

Hi Richie,
In general... yeah, chickens are probably the best. They may not be the best for all insects, but they are probably the easiest-to-get, easiest-to-take-care-of animals that will eat the widest range of bugs. I can't speak to the cockroaches specifically, but I do know they eat ticks. While they are not known for eating as many as guinea hens, they do eat quite a few. And any place where there are chickens will get scratched up and generally made not welcoming to any insect, whether it is eaten or not.

Hi, Richie

As Jordan said, I have always heard guinea hens are good for catching bugs.

I have not done free-range chickens so I am not familiar with chickens and bugs though I bet the chickens would go after any bugs.

These posts talk about ducks for pest control:

https://permies.com/t/40/166541/keeping-chickens-save-money#1468374

https://permies.com/t/143896/Chickens-Indian-Runners-planning-advice#1127243

Here are some Paul Wheaton videos about chickens that you or others might enjoy:








Here is an article that I found that you might enjoy:



https://pantryparatus.com/articles/building-a-chicken-coop/

I have 32 chickens that free range.  I have friends that have guineas.  I know people that encourage possums to live on their land to help control ticks.  In my experience, the best thing for controlling ticks is mowing.  I don't believe you are going to find any animal that has any notable effect on ticks whatsoever.

This thread talks about using Praying Mantis, Western Fence Lizard, daddy long legs, quail, partridge, guinea fowl, turkey, frogs, toads, and waps so you might want to build some rock piles or brush piles to attract the bugs, lizards, and toads:

https://permies.com/t/162254/Tick-Infestation

Here are some threads you or others might enjoy to attract bug predators:

https://permies.com/t/144003/shelters-habitat/place-habitat-features-pest-control

https://permies.com/t/134171/Creating-rock-log-piles-deal

https://permies.com/t/30313/Attracting-Predators

Trace Oswald wrote:I have 32 chickens that free range.  I have friends that have guineas.  I know people that encourage possums to live on their land to help control ticks.  In my experience, the best thing for controlling ticks is mowing.  I don't believe you are going to find any animal that has any notable effect on ticks whatsoever.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. All those animals may eat some ticks, maybe a lot of ticks, but from what I can see, it amounts to nothing more than a drop in the bucket.  

Well if you hate to mow and don't mind a dead zone, chickens will destroy an areas of grass quite readily.

These are all great ideas, thank you.  I'm more concerned for the cockroaches because it's so out of balance.  We live in a forest so clearing as much leaf litter around the house is a huge help. We have hardly any grass.

There is a bunch of toads and daddy long legs and praying mantis, etc.  I'm quite satisfied by the diversity here, except the roaches.  I know they wont disappear. But encourage to live outside the property is ideal.

I'll dig into the other animals.  I'm concerned to keep chickens because of the threat from foxes, etc. There are a lot of predators here and the girls need to roam safely.

Perhaps a water feature will help bring toads in.  I need an army of natural predators for now.

Anne Miller wrote:This thread talks about using Praying Mantis, Western Fence Lizard, daddy long legs, quail, partridge, guinea fowl, turkey, frogs, toads, and waps so you might want to build some rock piles or brush piles to attract the bugs, lizards, and toads:

https://permies.com/t/162254/Tick-Infestation

Here are some threads you or others might enjoy to attract bug predators:

https://permies.com/t/144003/shelters-habitat/place-habitat-features-pest-control

https://permies.com/t/134171/Creating-rock-log-piles-deal

https://permies.com/t/30313/Attracting-Predators

Anne, thank you for all of the links (this post and the earlier one as well) its helps to have some focused threads to follow.

Maybe a guard goose could watch over the smaller birds?

I have found that young growing chickens will eat ticks, but adult layers are mediocre at eating ticks. So I hatch out a bunch in the spring and free range them from chicken tractors to get the ticks. I have never had guinea fowl but they are supposed to be the best for eating ticks. I don't have roaches, but they are likely big enough that adult layers would find them worth catching. I think it would be worth trying chickens just because they they are fun and easy to take care of.

My husband sprays calcium/phosphorous in water solution on our land.  As Elaine Ingram taught him, less is better, as too much makes the microbes lazy and they don’t do the real work of working on the native soils and breaking it down to make it more available.  He had the good fortune of working in her lab and being one of  her most avid students many years ago.  We’ve never had fleas here but the neighbors are infested.  Out dogs/cats never had fleas and received no treatment to prevent them, didn’t need it.  Calcium/sulfur gets rid of most ticks too.  (gypsum). So does keeping grass from getting too high.  

We are rotating the chickens into the apple orchard and out into two other smaller paddocks, which seems to be working well, but we only have a few at present.  
Years ago when I bought this farm, the pear trees all had severe fire blight.  Did chicken tractors and all trees put on vigorous new growth and heavy crops of fruit.  
Pears recover well if given the right nutrients.  

Grazing animals have an enzyme in their saliva which stimulates plant growth.  High weeds/grasses shade out clover until it dies back.  Grazing cuts it down, so clover growth is favored.  As grass is grazed it root prunes which leaves decomposing roots to turn into humates/compost, rejuvenating the soil.   When they are on the same land all the time, the pasture never recovers and favorite plants like clover, lespedeza, and chicory die out.  Rotating paddocks or strip grazing also eliminates most of the parasite problem.  

William Bronson wrote:Maybe a guard goose could watch over the smaller birds?

Will a guard goose really fend off large predators for chickens?    Has anyone done that?  I mean I know geese are tough, but that would be awesome.

In "the best" there is a lot of stuff to unpack. In what they give versus what they take, they are probably the best: they give meat and eggs, manure to enrich crops and they do a lot of foraging too. They are also excellent at clearing land of grass, [like Attila the Hun!] to the point that you have to change their paddock. They are easy to clean, dress and cook in a myriad ways. [Sheep and hogs are larger, so not as easy to handle] If you leave them alone, [and make sure they can hide their brood], they birth their babies by sitting on eggs for 21 days. Larger animals may need some assist. Roosters can help by defending their hens from predators [while sheep, for example would just run in a panic]. Ducks and geese are pretty good too, although my ducks were eating the leaves of my rhubarb! [and they didn't even get diarrhea!] and you must provide them with water. In the winter, keeping the pond from freezing in zone 4b may be quite a hassle!
By *adding* to their paddock [as opposed to switching their paddock] I've also realized that while we are wondering:" what the heck do they get out of that moonscape?", they still seem to love their moonscape, which really surprised me. Their "new" paddock is still full of grass and bushes after 3+ months. [There , they only scratch where they can find bare soil]. They love to get in the shade of trees and bushes and scratch away for hours.
I was despairing of cleaning the grass under my hedge of aronias. Tall grass was getting unmanageable. Not anymore: My aronias stick out of the soil better than if I had used a string trimmer! Seeds/ grains insects, everything is good. [Make sure they are never out of grit, which I provide separately as my sand is too fine to use as grit]. If you kill a squirrel  or find any roadkill, they will feast on it, especially after it "ripens". In the afternoon, when it is hot, they dust themselves in those dust bowls. That, in itself, is a big bonus we don't often think about: they create rich soil that they have debugged, de-seeded and enriched: When I need good soil to plant a tree in, I can always go to their moonscape paddock and rake/ shovel together a couple of homer pails to put in tree holes: trees get a good start in this relatively seed free, bug free soil.
In the fall, try to confine them after a crop in the orchard: I pick the fallen apples for applesauce, but they will deal with any apple that is bug infested and too gooey for me to pick up, ensuring that the soil is cleared of any dead fruit that might harbor a disease.. In the garden, they will till the beds they have access to. [Just cover the ones you need to protect]. By doing such good cleanup, I don't need to spray for pests in my orchards.
Yes, the humble chicken is my favorite "workhorse".

I live in an area that has a problem with roaches, as does most of the US. Maybe anywhere in the world, to be honest.
I have a flock of free-ranging chickens and guard geese.

While I do not have a bug free home, I *do* have a rather bug-free life where the insects are more an exception than a rule. I do not have a problem, as I see it, with roaches, ticks, fleas, flies, or any insect other than gnats. The chickens do clean things up, remove anything that might attract insect life, and seem to do a great job balancing the outside ecosystem so the insects that get into the house are exceptional.
I have, more then once, invited a "porch chicken" into the back hallway to chase down a bug. They did an excellent job and were amazing at it. They also regard it as a treat, so it's easy enough to invite them back in if I have need.

We do not have a mosquito problem, or any other insect problem. I would love to lay the achievement at the feet of the flock, but can honestly say, "Maybe?" It could also be that the geese, and my water container habits, have improved so that we no longer have the necessary stagnant water that generate nearby mosquitos.

I have guard geese. They work in scaring away some things, but you have to have geese that are large enough to be scary to whatever you have around, and loud enough you are able to be back-up to your geese. Their noisemaking needs to have a reaction from you. You are the absolute level of protection for your livestock, the geese just let you know that they think something is worth yelling about.

The geese can scare away large birds during the day. They are great for that. We have had a couple of attacks made by raptors, and the geese scare away half of them, the roosters do their job for the rest. I have lost birds to raptors, but I can usually recover the critter, so ... Driven off doesn't mean saved.
The geese are also good for letting me know when there's something going on they don't approve of. Cats, opossums, dogs in the yard, the FedEx guy, the guy who checks the electric meter, and the guy who checks the septic system all get yelled at. They're better than a doorbell, but less reliable. They do get caught up in goosing in the back pasture and forget to keep an eye on the front of the yard.

I hope you have found a balance for yourself and your situation. Birds are useful for helping to control insects, but I don't think they'd be able to be the whole of your control methods. A good start, or supplement, maybe.

Hi Everyone,  

Turns out Robins (bird)  eat cockroaches.  Thought I would mention this for those interested.  I was out in the yard and lo and behold a robin came down and scooped up a roach.  Then another one.  I know toads eat roaches too, but thats a slow process.  Ideas on how to encourage more robins?   Thanks for all the information on the previous posts.

I'll keep ya'll posted on any new details as they develop.

Chickens love cockroaches. For years in late spring I always had invasion of Turkestan cockroach (Shelfordella lateralis). The males are flying and when it's hot they are turbo fast. Imagine that you are reading on your laptop or phone and fast, disgusting roach is running over your screen. Since I have chickens I haven't seen even one of these this year. When I lift some old tarp or wood log and the roaches are there I call my hens and they finish them in no time.

Richie Ring wrote:  Ideas on how to encourage more robins?  

Be careful what you wish for - robins are hard on my berry supply!

That said, they benefit from sheltered platforms for building nests on - a flat board below the eaves for example. One of the best ways to encourage birds is nesting sites.

Our neighbors have boxes up for swallows who are great mosquito eaters as another example. They catch while flying, so they won't help with roaches or ticks!