Are mosquitoes harmless? Should you be worried about them? How should you protect your pigeons? Mosquitoes are definitely NOT harmless; they are more than just a pest or nuisance. They can be deadly. Here are ways to protect your pigeons as well as get a better understanding of why these pests should not be dismissed so quickly.
Mosquitos can wreak havoc with your Pigeons in the following ways:
A. Cause various kinds of diseases and illnesses.
B. West Nile Virus is quite common, as you might find a dead pigeon upside down in the coop or pen.
C. Paramecium
D. They bite the legs and bodies of pigeons, causing your pigeons to dance and move at a constant rate inside their coops in the dark all night long. The pigeon could die from a mosquito-borne disease from being bitten repeatedly, or your pigeons could become susceptible to stress, illness, and death. You’d have no idea what was causing your pigeons to become ill.
E. When pigeons have to fight off mosquitoes all night, that prevents them from getting any rest. Your birds are becoming stressed as a result of their lack of sleep and constant movement and bites. Just like people, animals can only go so long without rest before it catches up with them and sickness filters in and takes over the body. If you still do nothing, then death is most likely the next step.
HOW do we protect our pigeons and prevent the above:
A. There will be no open floor with grating exposed to the elements. If you have a grate in your summer coop, cover all four sides with plywood. You can attach wood with hinges so you can still lift it open to access underneath the coop, if need be, for cleaning or other purposes. Boards should cover the ground to the floor on the outside of the coop or loft and should not have any gaps.
B. All open portholes should have mosquito screens attached to the outside so they can be lifted open during the day and closed at night.
C. All coop or loft doors should have screens with no holes in them. We use exterior house storm doors on our coops with screens. We have the windows in the doors open, so the screens are exposed, letting in the fresh air.
D. We built most of our coops using house storm windows. So, in the summer, the windows are open and the screens are fully enclosed on the windows, letting the air in but keeping the bugs out. We then placed a piece of wire (with holes smaller than those in chicken wire) over the window screens on the inside of coops to prevent birds from hanging on and putting holes in the screens.
E. On the coop that does not have house windows, just port holes, we use house window screens pressed up against each port hole on the outside of the coop and held up with a heavy metal rod when we lock them in each evening. There are no holes in the screens, and every opening to the coops and lofts is completely protected by screens of some kind.
F. Go into your coop at night in the dark to see and feel what your birds experience each night. If you hear a lot of tapping and movement, then you know what I’m telling you to be true, and you have a mosquito problem that requires you to remedy it.
G. Buy the Raid Flying Insect Blue can of spray. As a quick, short-term, temporary fix, spray inside the coop to kill mosquitoes. You can also use that same spray on your birds’ underwings if they have little bugs or mites in their wings. You might see that on really hot summer days.
WHAT Are Possible Dangers Of Mosquitos Bites?
These nasty little pests can easily become a real nightmare for humans and animals of all kinds. While there are several different species of mosquitoes, they are not all the same. Some feed only during the daytime, others only during the night. Some emerge from standing water, while others emerge from rotten wood or burrow beneath standing trees. But what does group them together is their innate ability to serve as carriers of different viruses and parasites that can then be transmitted into any one of us humans or animals through a single bite. Reported mosquito-borne diseases you may recognize include, to name a few, West Nile, Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria, Encephalitis, Yellow Fever, and Rift Valley Disease. Possible indicators include: fever, depression, incoordination (difficulty walking or being unable to rise), muscle weakness (spasms or tremors), seizures or paralysis, neurological signs (knuckling over, head tilting), inflammation of the brain, and death.
HOW We Protect Our Birds (as well as Our other animals):
We live out in a rural country area with open hay fields, woods, a creek, and swamp land, along with a large yard. So, we tend to have a lot of mosquitoes around. Hence, we’ve tried different things until we discovered the four things that seem to really help in keeping our birds as well as ourselves and other animals safer.
1.) Electric Bug Zapper – We ran an outdoor extension cord all the way down the yard to the edge of the woods. We hang it up roughly 200 feet or more away from the coops and the house. We want to keep mosquitoes as far away from us as possible. This little gadget works way better than I ever anticipated. Because it was completely plugged by morning, I had to use the air compressor to blow it out. If I had to guess, I’d say over 2000 mosquitos are zapped each night, which I consider a win-win situation in terms of mosquito population control. You can buy whichever one you want, but here’s the link to the one I got from Amazon. No, I am NOT getting paid to advertise; I am just telling you what I use. So do your research and get what works for you.
Flowtron BK-40D Electronic Insect Killer, 1 Acre Coverage, Black
It looks like this picture: 90-Day
Don’t Buy the Pro Tech 30-Day
2.) Spartan Mosquito Eradicator Tubes – These tubes come prefilled with a mixture of sugar, yeast, and salt, which, when filled with warm water and shaken, produce carbon dioxide that attracts mosquitoes like your breath does. They will then enter, eat, leave, and die quickly. These tubes will keep working for 90 days. PLEASE NOTE: The Spartan comes in two varieties: the 90 Day Spartan Mosquito Eradicator and the 30-Day Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech. DO NOT PURCHASE the 30-Day Pro Tech. It’s roughly the same price as the 90-day one, but it doesn’t work. The 30-Day Pro Tech is made of only boric acid, which will kill them but doesn’t seem to attract them to it by producing CO2 like the 90-Day Eradicator does. I looked into every store that sells this product and discovered that ALL of them, INCLUDING the actual Spartan website found here https://spartanmosquito.com are now only selling the 30-day Pro Tech version. Although this company’s website is great for instructional videos on how to use their product, ONLY buy “The Mosquito Eradicator” from a website that actually sells the 90-day Eradicator version that works… And again, NO, we are NOT getting paid to advertise; we are just offering you the link to one of the few sites we found that sells the 90-day version. We found Walmart sell both so be sure you pick the correct one. Here is the direct link we use to purchase it . “Spartan Mosquito Eradicator”
3.) Raid Flying Insect Spray – Blue Can – This is what we would use to spray on birds’ underwings if we were to find any of our birds with little black bugs on them. It provides instant relief to the bird as bugs are killed on contact. If you have mosquitoes in the coop and need to kill them on contact, you can spray inside the coop as well as all around the outside. You can use this pretty much anywhere. If you want to read more about it and what else you can use it for, here is a link to the Raid company website. Raid products are sold pretty much everywhere, so this one is easy to find.
Raid Company Site for more details
But as you clearly can see, it’s available in most stores.
4.) Mosquito SCREENS – Buy mosquito screens or use window screens to cover all open access points of your coop or loft. When you close your birds up at night, there shouldn’t be any opening for mosquitos to enter inside. A roll of mosquito screen is fairly cheap and well worth the effort. But please know that, as with anything, you will need to clean the screens by hosing them down every so often as they will get dirty or clogged up.
In Conclusion:
Mosquitoes may seem like a simple pest or even an afterthought, but in reality they really should be looked at more closely and put into your forethought to motivate you to take action and protect your animals. You know what it’s like to be bitten, resulting in raised, itchy bumps or welts on your own skin. Well, animals are no different; it hurts them just as much. Not every mosquito or bite will cause illness or death, but it only takes one. Be smart, be caring, and enclose all openings with screens. That’s all for now; drop us a line if you have any questions.
Until next time … Enjoy the backyard fun.
