SandyWI
Well-Known Member
I was reading another post about fly control and wanted to give my opinions on it. First off, I really hate using any chemicals at all on the miniatures.
With my big horses, I would purchase a $10 bottle of Permethrin concentrate, and dilute it with water and sometimes I added a little vinegar. However, in looking closely at my horses, I would see flies to continue landing on the areas I had sprayed.
Permethrin is a powerful chemical, and has been known to produce tumors in laboratory rats. It's also not safe for foals. Because of this, I wouldn't spray it on my other minis as foals are always nipping the other horses.
One year I bought parasitic wasps. I spread them out in the big horses' pasture, as that's where I felt they were needed most. However, I had to move my horses out of that pasture only two weeks after the wasps arrived, and I think that sort of threw the thing off.
I think the thing we need to understand is that not all flies are created equal. The first flies to arrive are typically the regular house fly. These flies do not bite, but have sponging mouthparts. Because they typically love manure and rotting organic wastes, they can carry many diseases to horses. One of the easiest ways to get rid of these flies, which are very numerous during the hottest days of early summer, is by fly traps.
I use a flytrap which is put out by Farnum. It is called the Captivator. It comes with an attractant that stinks to high heaven! You put the attractant in the trap and half-fill the jar with water. I have six of these traps and I don't put them right next to the pasture or dry lots. Instead, I put them on the other side of the barn, but they must be hung only a few feet off the ground and they must be in sunlight. These traps go out in early-to-mid May. As soon as it warms up enough and when I see the first house fly, the traps are put out. By the beginning of June, we are catching approximately 100,000 flies per day. (According to trap capacity). Any flies around my barn are busy getting into the traps and I rarely seen any on the horses.
We wait till night fall, when the flies become inactive, to empty the traps. Most flies will be dead from drowning, but there are always live ones in the upper half of the jar. I take a can of Raid and squirt it into the jar opening to kill the live ones, and then we dig a small hole and dump the dead flies into it, stomping the dirt down.
This year, I stopped buying the attractant and used meat instead. I just took some raw chicken or burger, whatever I was cooking for supper, saving a bit, and put the raw meat into the jar with water and set it in the sun and within a half day the flies were at it. Because house flies will lay their eggs in rotting organic wastes, we clean up all manure out of the dry lots at least twice a day, and from the pasture once a week. I've found that miniature horse manure isn't a great source of fly maggots anyway, as it dries out too quickly.
The face flies arrive around the beginning of July. These flies don't bite, but they feed on the mucous of the eyes, mouth, or nose. These flies are particularly troublesome because they cause great distress to horses through sheer annoyance, and also because they can be the source of pinkeye. Additionally, they also harbor eyeworm parasites and Habronema. Face flies are supposed to lay their eggs ONLY in cattle manure, not horse manure, but we get face flies and the closest cattle are a half mile away, so I guess they travel well! Using the stinky fly baits will also catch these flies.
The stable fly is active in late spring and early summer, and then dwindles in numbers in mid-to-late summer. These flies will bite! They can cause the horse a lot of pain! These flies usually don't breed in manure, but instead breed in piles of wet or moist vegetation. Keep your grass cut around your pastures and barn! Don't allow any piles of mown grass to lay around. Don't throw out uneaten hay and leave it laying around in piles. These flies probably won't be attracted to fly bait, so if they are bad the only control is spray. However, the flies usually aren't around all summer, so fly masks are often very effective in giving relief and protection to your horses.
If you are diligent, and use the fly traps, you really can control and eliminate a great number of fly pests! I honestly don't have many of them here at this point. I'm in SW Wisconsin, and I'm sure they should all be out in great numbers this time of year, but i believe my fly traps are doing an excellent job! Also, clean up that manure!
Another thing you can use is fly bait, such as Golden Malrin. However, don't use it anywhere kids or pets can get into it. Since I don't have barn cats and my dog doesn't go to the barn, I sprinkle it around the base of the barn, but not in the dry lots or pastures. Flies love this stuff! They eat it and die in a few minutes. When we clean the stalls every morning and have the manure heaped up in the cart to be dumped, we sprinkle the Golden Malrin right on top of the manure. By the time we've hauled the stuff way out to a gully to be dumped, another large group of flies has met its death.
So, just start attacking those flies with fly traps BEFORE they become numerous, and I think you'll find a big difference!
With my big horses, I would purchase a $10 bottle of Permethrin concentrate, and dilute it with water and sometimes I added a little vinegar. However, in looking closely at my horses, I would see flies to continue landing on the areas I had sprayed.
Permethrin is a powerful chemical, and has been known to produce tumors in laboratory rats. It's also not safe for foals. Because of this, I wouldn't spray it on my other minis as foals are always nipping the other horses.
One year I bought parasitic wasps. I spread them out in the big horses' pasture, as that's where I felt they were needed most. However, I had to move my horses out of that pasture only two weeks after the wasps arrived, and I think that sort of threw the thing off.
I think the thing we need to understand is that not all flies are created equal. The first flies to arrive are typically the regular house fly. These flies do not bite, but have sponging mouthparts. Because they typically love manure and rotting organic wastes, they can carry many diseases to horses. One of the easiest ways to get rid of these flies, which are very numerous during the hottest days of early summer, is by fly traps.
I use a flytrap which is put out by Farnum. It is called the Captivator. It comes with an attractant that stinks to high heaven! You put the attractant in the trap and half-fill the jar with water. I have six of these traps and I don't put them right next to the pasture or dry lots. Instead, I put them on the other side of the barn, but they must be hung only a few feet off the ground and they must be in sunlight. These traps go out in early-to-mid May. As soon as it warms up enough and when I see the first house fly, the traps are put out. By the beginning of June, we are catching approximately 100,000 flies per day. (According to trap capacity). Any flies around my barn are busy getting into the traps and I rarely seen any on the horses.
We wait till night fall, when the flies become inactive, to empty the traps. Most flies will be dead from drowning, but there are always live ones in the upper half of the jar. I take a can of Raid and squirt it into the jar opening to kill the live ones, and then we dig a small hole and dump the dead flies into it, stomping the dirt down.
This year, I stopped buying the attractant and used meat instead. I just took some raw chicken or burger, whatever I was cooking for supper, saving a bit, and put the raw meat into the jar with water and set it in the sun and within a half day the flies were at it. Because house flies will lay their eggs in rotting organic wastes, we clean up all manure out of the dry lots at least twice a day, and from the pasture once a week. I've found that miniature horse manure isn't a great source of fly maggots anyway, as it dries out too quickly.
The face flies arrive around the beginning of July. These flies don't bite, but they feed on the mucous of the eyes, mouth, or nose. These flies are particularly troublesome because they cause great distress to horses through sheer annoyance, and also because they can be the source of pinkeye. Additionally, they also harbor eyeworm parasites and Habronema. Face flies are supposed to lay their eggs ONLY in cattle manure, not horse manure, but we get face flies and the closest cattle are a half mile away, so I guess they travel well! Using the stinky fly baits will also catch these flies.
The stable fly is active in late spring and early summer, and then dwindles in numbers in mid-to-late summer. These flies will bite! They can cause the horse a lot of pain! These flies usually don't breed in manure, but instead breed in piles of wet or moist vegetation. Keep your grass cut around your pastures and barn! Don't allow any piles of mown grass to lay around. Don't throw out uneaten hay and leave it laying around in piles. These flies probably won't be attracted to fly bait, so if they are bad the only control is spray. However, the flies usually aren't around all summer, so fly masks are often very effective in giving relief and protection to your horses.
If you are diligent, and use the fly traps, you really can control and eliminate a great number of fly pests! I honestly don't have many of them here at this point. I'm in SW Wisconsin, and I'm sure they should all be out in great numbers this time of year, but i believe my fly traps are doing an excellent job! Also, clean up that manure!
Another thing you can use is fly bait, such as Golden Malrin. However, don't use it anywhere kids or pets can get into it. Since I don't have barn cats and my dog doesn't go to the barn, I sprinkle it around the base of the barn, but not in the dry lots or pastures. Flies love this stuff! They eat it and die in a few minutes. When we clean the stalls every morning and have the manure heaped up in the cart to be dumped, we sprinkle the Golden Malrin right on top of the manure. By the time we've hauled the stuff way out to a gully to be dumped, another large group of flies has met its death.
So, just start attacking those flies with fly traps BEFORE they become numerous, and I think you'll find a big difference!
will mean hundreds less.
