Ann, do a search on our forum for diatomaceous earth. THere was some speaking about it and I can't remember. I am too lazy to do that search for you, well, not true, I have a bunch of posts that I want to read, so I will be that lazy girl and wait for you to do it and then tell us, hee, hee, (if you will share this secret once you have done the work to get the answers, hee, hee, you know me).
Personally, if I were you, instead of using the D.E. I would just turn the ground over in the coop frequently to keep the stench down (oops, did I say that?) The chicken yard can get kind of stinky when there are alot of chickens in a pretty small area, stench was not a great word, hee, hee.
I am lucky that I have so much room for all the birds here that there is not really much smell. I clean the coops about once a week and put down sawdust shavings, very very lightly, that helps to get rid of smells too.
About the insects, well I think that the chickens will eat all the insects, they love to munch on bugs, even pick the bugs from the air as they fly away.
When I was herding the ducks into their night house (they are always the last ones to go in), Girl was walking along and she was looking this way and that. She stopped for a second, grabbed a bug in mid air and then carried on to her house. It was kind of funny because I didn't see that bug, but boy, she had her eyeball on it, it made me laugh.
Ann, you are going to love to have those chickens, they will give you hours of entertainment, watching them, listening to them, I cannot describe how interesting it will be. Are you getting a rooster? Now that is a hoot and a hollar, they have got to be the most cool of them all. I love my roosters, and I love how they command the girls and the entire stock. Even the ducks and the turkeys listen when a warning call is made. When the warning call is made, it is incredible the silence. You never realize how really noisy things are until their is the chickenyard silence......have the most beautiful and wonderful day, don't I just keep ramblin' and ramblin', something like the Eveready Bunny, keeps on goin' and goin' and goin', by the way, our sun is gonna shine today, :) :) :) Cindi