Posted: 9/14/2011 8:05:17 AM EDT
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Anyone use DE to worm animals? Where do you get it? How much does it cost? Is it worth it?
Yep a whole bunch of questions, thank you very much. |
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Quoted:
Anyone use DE to worm animals? Where do you get it? How much does it cost? Is it worth it? Yep a whole bunch of questions, thank you very much. it probably won't work for worming animals as it's a powder. basically the way it works is its tiny tiny shards of glass, as the bugs crawl over it, land on it, ect ect it cuts the bugs open and dries them out and they die. get the food grade stuff. i mix it in my chickens food in hopes that it helps deworm them but there is no proof of it working. it's good stuff and will really help keep the flys and stuff out of your coup and keeping lice/mites off your girls |
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I bought a bag from the Farmer's Co Op in town and use a garden duster ($14.99) to spread it around the wood shavings on the inside of the chicken coop. Just like the poster above me stated. They're little fossilized diatoms that act like little shards and puncture the bugs exoskeleton and kill them, a mechanical insecticide. It came in about a 3lb bag and a little goes a long way with a duster. If I remember correctly the bag cost about 12 bucks. |
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My understanding of DE is that it kills bugs that have hard exoskeletons by ripping holes in the exoskeleton and causing the bug to dehydrate (as JerzeyTransplant already mentioned). Why it would work on soft bodied worms is a mystery to me, particularly since it passes through the GI tract of the host without causing any damage. I personally don't put any stock in it as a wormer.
Last bag I bought was $17 for a 40 pound bag at the feed mill. |
It was the only one they had though.