I would love to find a natural alternative and have tried a variety of them but always go back to Pyranah. My horse is reactive to fly bites especially around his front legs and it’s the only stuff that works.
Well that’s not fair to the land owners. You never know what type of grant of ag laws they are trying to follow, what species they may be concerned about - even Endure doesn’t work more than 20minutes around here. If you can’t follow the rules…find a new barn. Boats have sunscreen rules, heck Europe bans tons of pesticides, some beaches and habitats have bug spray & sunscreen restrictions. But a list of approved substances is wise, and what I would expect.
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I used Eco Vet when it first came out and it worked really well. Then they changed the scent so it wasn’t so disgusting; unfortunately the flies thought so too and now it doesn’t seem to work as well. Years ago I used Pyranha and was happy with it, but my horse eventually hated it and developed a reaction to it. Didn’t even like being sprayed with it.
I figure that since most sprays don’t work that well, I’d rather waste my money on something a bit less harmful to me, my horse and the environment than chemicals that are ineffective too. Clac was my go-to until Eco Vet.
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I had a horse in training who came with Ecovet fly spray. It works…sorta…but both the horse and I would have a coughing fit every morning when I applied it. Awful stuff!
Good luck with the natural crap. I had a clients horse run out of Tritech 14 this morning. I did her left side with Tritech and her right side with some crazy salad dressing-smelling homemade, do-gooder concoction, then turned the horse out for the day. When I brought her back in at 3pm her right side legs and belly were covered in flies. The left only side had a couple flies. I’ll stick to the chemicals down here in the land summer sores.
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Agreed. People go waaaaay overboard with all the natural, non GMO, soy free, vegan, blah, blah. blah…
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@Maude is there a solid reason behind this request from your barn? Like, I don’t know…are they installing a bunch of bee hives and are worried about killing them? (Although not sure fly spray away from the hives and not on flowers would do that…) Or maybe someone has an allergy? Or is this a huge overreaction?
It’s tough to advise flouting a new rule, but if it’s clear it’s an overreaction and no harm will come, add pyrethrin or the concentrated repelx to your natural spray at home and use that. It won’t change the smell, so it won’t be noticable, but your spray will work a lot better. I “juice” all of my spray with a little pyrethrin…helps the real stuff to work better and the natural ones to work at all. I do also use fly predators, and just make sure to not spray the horses in the stalls (the spray will kill the predators through tainted bedding.)
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I found Eco Vet worked the best - hands down.
Regarding cost - what is the point of spending any money on something that is not effective. The Eco Vet lasts, you do not need much if you follow instructions and if it makes you cough, stand out of the way. I do not find it at all difficult to cope with.
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I use Skeeter Screen for me, the horse, and the dog and it works really well. The downside is that it doesn’t last long; you have to apply daily if not twice a day. I use it on myself and notice a big reduction in bug bites, and the flies don’t drive me crazy when I’m cleaning water troughs. I bought a little people bottle on sale because why not try it, and was super impressed. The horse version is the exact same thing, just in a bigger bottle, so now I buy that and spray us both at once. It’s a mix of essential oils, mainly geranium. It has a strong scent, but I find it pleasant.
I’ve heard good things about the marigold spray, I make a catnip/garlic tea and spray them with that which works for a few hours at a time although it’s only good for gnats/mosquitos those big horse flys don’t care about anything lol
I’ve had limited good results with several brands of natural sprays but as some have mentioned above, their effects simply don’t last for more than a couple of hours, if that long. I’ve settled on Pyranhah which works really well for keeping flies off, as long as you apply it according to instructions.
Had a friend who went through several natural sprays. After a vet bill for Lyme treatment, she went for Absorbine Ultra.Not natural butt it works for at least a day. Now she vaccinates too.
Hi all, sorry to bump an old thread - looking for something organic for my horse as like mentioned above - our barn says it needs to be natural or organic. Has anyone tried the spray from https://stopbuggn.net ?
