Keeping The Flies Away This Summer
Let’s face it flies and horses seem to go together. It happens every year, spring arrives, and so do the flies. But I have a few tips to share with you so you can reduce the fly population at your barn this summer so your horse will be more comfortable and so will you!
Take Control Of Your Manure
The manure pile is the first thing to get a handle on if you want to reduce the amount of fling pests you have visiting your farm. Manure piles are also prime breeding grounds for flies. By keeping the manure to a minimum, the flies don’t have as many places around your horse’s to breed. If you have to keep a manure pile, be sure to keep it far away from your barn. You also want to keep the manure out of their stalls, and picked up around your property. If you stay ahead of it, it is much easier to manage. So keep the poop picked up to help reduce the flies.
But it isn’t just manure where the flies like to lay their eggs. Any dead or decaying matter, like piles of leaves, vegetation, etc.
Keep It Dry And Smelling Fresh
Flies are attracted to moisture, and if your stalls are dirty and damp, the flies will congregate. Keep your horses stall clean and dry by removing manure, and making sure you have good drainage. Flies are attracted to the odor as well, so using something like sweet PDZ or stall fresh products will help to control odors. One of my favorite things to put in my horse’s stalls are bugpellent hangers. These are hangers that are filled with 16 different essential oils. It helps to keep the flying pests out of the stalls, as well as deodorizing the barn.
It’s also a good idea to keep water and feed buckets clean and free of food waste to help keep the flies out of the barn.
Attract Beneficial Predators
You can purchase fly predators, a type of flying insect that can help to keep the fly population in check. But don’t forget about other beneficial insect eating critters, like bats and birds. You could add a few bat and bird houses to your property to encourage them to stay on your property.
Feed Through Supplements
There are products available that you can feed your horse that will disrupt the pupal phase of the fly. There is a chemical in the product that passes through your horse’s digestive tract and is excreted in the manure. The chemical interrupts the life cycle of the fly by stopping the formation of the exoskeleton when they molt, so they are not able to become adult flies.
These products say they can reduce 97 to 100% of stable and house fly populations in barns of treated horses. I personally use a feed through supplement for my horses and while there are still some flies, they are not nearly as bad as they were before I started using a feed through product.
There’s Still Time For Your Fly Control Program
Even if you are reading this in the middle of summer and think it’s too late, think again. It’s never too late to decrease the fly population around your property. By adding the above tips to your routine barn keeping, you can help to decrease the fly population for the summer. It’s definitely worth a try to have a fly free summer!