For years, I have known that chickens enjoy eating many bugs in the yard, including ticks.  In my years of keeping backyard chickens, I have never found a tick on the flock, yet I know they are lurking in the yard.  Yesterday as I was out refilling the coop waterers,  I was a bit disturbed-perched, waiting and ready to hop on board to a warm, blood-filled body was a dog tick.  So I decided to do a little experiment.

To keep pests including bugs, mites and lice at bay, I use Manna Pro’s Poultry Protector, food grade diatomaceous earth and the nesting box blend.  I have had great success incorporating these three products into our routines. As you probably already know, It is virtually impossible to kill a tick by squishing it. Their strong exoskeletons are like a suit of armor. Could the tick survive the FGDE?  There was only one way to find out. If my experiment was a success, I knew that FGDE should work in a matter of hours.

I sprinkled a bit of FGDE into a plastic container and then added the tick.  Once the tick had self-applied the FGDE, I placed it into another container and waited. I checked on it after 9 hours.  It was still alive and active.  I placed it on the table and it tried to escape. I placed it back into the container.

This morning, 24 hours later, I went out to check on the tick. it was dead.  Dog ticks may have tough exoskeletons but they are no match for FGDE.  One more thing I was glad to have confirmed on my chicken keeping adventures.

Photo Credit:  Tilly’s Nest