In the vast majority of pests including predators, it is best to do Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM is simply using a wide range of tactics, usually the least problematic first, to control a pest.
For fire ants we use boiling water & our bulls dig the nests and toss the ants on their backs and roll in the ant beds. For flies we use traps, barn swallows & other birds, bats, fly spray and other stuff.
For predators we start with Sheep & Goat Wire, a 4 x 4 field fence/woven wire to give the land predators a hassle to get food. That is what we are changing all of our perimeter wire to and it has helped greatly. Traping, shooting, getting up at all hours of the night, a livestock guard dog, 14 guage wire for pens, keeping food put up at night or away from predator access, keeping the mice population down, keeping the place clean and the 40-70 Sheep Weedeater going(that would be 40 adult sheep & 30 offspring that will be sold)...all of these things and whatever you can think of help to control the predators.
Keep in mind that coyotes, foxes & others really like smelly items. Compost, table scraps, grease, dairy are all big attractors. Some trappers use Avon items to attract coyotes to traps.
Longer than expected,
Jeff Price
Note - In our area the foxes feed heavily on insects & their is a reduced presence of foxes when the free range chickens have most of the insects eaten up.
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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