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Best fly spray this year?

Horse Care
#42

I’ll put in a plug for this here:

I’ve braided cattle ear tags into the mane and tail and have been really quite impressed. Tails are quiet when grazing, which I’m not sure I’ve EVER seen before. I’m pretty well sold on this as another tool in the box on the war on flies.

I’m using this one:

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=36F745B1-C9B2-4DCA-B9C0-632165232D7A&q=trizap

There are other options, too. I (personally) wouldn’t consider using any of the organophosphate tags but this one and plenty others are pyrethroid based.

Guessing that if you bathe frequently it won’t work as well, but it seems to do okay with occasional hosing. My horses have been wearing them for a couple weeks now? They’re supposed to last months!

2 Likes
#43

Hey! They are available on Amazon- if you buy 100, they are only $259.99!

#44

If anyone does want to splurge out and buy the 100 pack, there’s a rebate form on the Valley Vet site. $20 smackers back to you!

(There’s no expire date on them, just instructions to keep unused tags in a sealed bag.)

#45

A friend said she mixes this 1:4 or so with a “normal” spray, like Ultrashield, and the effect is still the same without the gag reflex :laughing: And of course, cheaper.

1 Like
#46

Endure plus Neem oil and a few drops Dr Bonner’s Eucalyptus Castile soap

1 Like
#47

Endure for me also or Tri-Tech.

#48

What does it smelll like ? Someone in my barn has a spray that’s seems to work although they always caution to use it sparingly and it smells like motor oil and diesel fuel.

#49

A pandemic plus: if you wear a mask while applying EcoVet, you don’t taste the fly spray for the next two hours.

Your mask may smell of it, but pros and cons.

It does work. I lost my mind and bought a gallon of UltraShield Green this year. I don’t know what I thought that was going to do. Gave up and just bought EcoVet again.

Where is everybody getting their neem oil that isn’t Amazon?

#50

That’s what I want to know… I’ve tried Lowe’s but all I can find are fungicides that contain neem oil, not straight neem oil. You can order from TSC but they don’t carry it in the stores around here. You can also ship to store at Home Depot.

#51

I haven’t ordered neem oil from these guys, but I have bought other stuff.

Also available from Chewy:

https://www.chewy.com/happy-horse-neem-oil-horse-topical-12/dp/321346?

2 Likes
#52

Any garden center should have it, esp if they have organic soils, ferts etc

1 Like
#53

Thanks, I found Bulk Apothecary as well. Neem and more powdered ginger all in one order!

#54

Interesting responses. I’ll have to try branching out!

Currently, I use products with cypermethrin. Flies aren’t interested in anything less, and I’m not convinced they are interested in this product hours after applied. I laugh at all fly products that state they are good for 14 days. That said, IME, flies don’t seem to care about regular permethrin products anymore.

#55

My mom gets her’s at the health food store

#56

This won’t work for boarding situations but for around the barn I’ve been mixing up just simple Dawn dish soap and water. I put it in a garden watering/ spray bucket and wet down the aisle in the morning and evening and keep some in a regular spray bottle. I spray the manure bucket/ wheel borrow and walls of the barn so far very few flies in the barn. And I spray a little around the inside of the stalls after I pick stalls in the evening.
I also spread the mosquito bits around the outside of the barn area and manure pile.
I have a few trees in the pastures but have woods on the other side of my fence lines. We keep the woods area weedeated
All of the topical fly sprays only seem to last an hour or o out in the field but we turn out late evening so it seems to last long enough for the sun to set.

#57

We had a load of flies this year, for some reason, perhaps due to all the days of heavy rain. Checked that my neighbors were still giving a feed-thru product to their horses (they were).

We did it all – SimpliFly feed-thru, automatic sprayers in stalls (hadn’t had to use those much the last few years), Ecovet fly spray, fly leggings on the more sensitive one for the first time ever, Bug Lyte feed-thru (barn smells like a pizza place at dinnertime, lol), hanging fly traps and fly tape, Gnat Away or Endure roll on on the faces, premise spray on stall walls, etc. Along with bti “tea” sprinkled daily on all wet spots, favorite manure spots (after picking poop), manure piles (before and after dumping), and in the manure carts after emptying.

Took a few weeks, but we’re back to our usual almost no flies – only a handful in the current trap, and the more sensitive horse is able to go without leggings once again. Personally, I think the liberal use of the bti tea helped a lot, and the Ecovet spray was more effective than the usual type (I wore a mask while applying with no gagging). We don’t normally need to use any fly spray on the horses here.

By the way, my horses like the Bug Lyte! And I think the DeOdorase does make a difference.

http://www.animedproducts.com/productview.php?id=23

#58

Do these really work? The flies seem about average this year but whatever is tiny and bites ears and bellies (gnats) is worse than I’ve ever seen and 3/4 horses are MISERABLE.

I have fly predators (enough for 4 horses though I only have two on property, the other two are boarded elsewhere) and feed the feed-through. I pick and spread manure twice a day. It’s never, never been like this. It’s unreal. Two of the horses serum tested allergic to biting insects of various types and those two are struggling. One at home hasn’t been tested but is also having the worst time. I’m at my wits end.

For spray I alternate between Ecovet and a couple different brands of more traditional fly spray.

I don’t see hardly any house flies/horse flies/bombers but the very very small biting things have never been worse!

#59

I’m surprised this worked. One is oil based and one is water based and in my experience that’s a guaranteed recipe to clog the sprayer.

#60

We Greatly reduced the quantity of flies at the barn by not storing the baled hay in the barn (have separate building just bringing in one or two bales at a time) and bagging all manure for trash pickup (twice a week)

#61

Quick question about Repel-x. Why does it need to be mixed fresh before use? Do they mean that the Repel-X/water mix needs to be made fresh before use? Or just that the mixture needs to be shaken before use?

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