Rural Gardening: Anyone else having problems with Buffalo gnats?, 0 by fleursdefouquet

fleursdefouquet wrote:
We found our hen dead last week and discovered our rooster was very sick yesterday. After taking him to the vet, we learned he was being eaten alive by buffalo gnats. The vet recommended dusting under feathers with 5% Sevin dust to kill the gnats and mites, covering comb and wattles with Vaseline to protect them from further bites, and rubbing or spraying the Avon product 'Skin So Soft' on his feathers as a repellant. He said the gnats are particularly bad this spring due to our rains.

Anyone else having this problem? Do you have any other suggestions or advice? We do not raise poultry - only have the one rooster now but may replace the dead hen with another hen or two later.