My big guy gets a terrible case of chiggers every year. His TB pasture mate does not . No one else in adjoining pastures get them. His legs swell up and weep and cost me a lot in vet bills. This year I caught it early but they arrived a month before usual. He is on antibiotics and is in his Whinny Socks which helps tremendously. He is also dry lotted till we get ahead of this. Has anyone had luck spraying a pasture for the little demons? Many of you won’t know what these devils are but they are like burrowing mites and cause horrible itch.
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Please don’t spray your pasture. Insecticides don’t discriminate between beneficial insects and chiggers. Instead, try spraying your horse’s legs (including the Whinny Socks), abdomen, and tail with fly spray. It has permethrin and will kill chiggers. Keeping the pasture mowed will also help.
I feel for your poor horse. Our pastures have chiggers, and if I walk out there in shorts when the grass is too long I get a big load of them. For me, it’s just one more reason to hate summer.
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How big is your pasture? I think beneficial nematodes would get chiggers, but depending on how big the pasture and how rich you are, it might be expensive.
2 acres. I want to spray.
The shorter the grass is the less chiggers you have. I’d also get some bug spray with DEET in it and basically soak the socks in it.
If you spray I’d recommend having a professional company that does lawns do it. If you do it yourself you likely will just be spreading around a lot of expensive water, as the amount needed for chigger control is truly a science. They will probably put you on a schedule and come out once a month to spray. Most of the time those companies guarantee their service too.
And if you feel particularly bad about spraying, maybe plant a small pollinator garden away from the pasture.
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Insecticides can also kill birds, either directly or when they eat poisoned insects. They can also sicken pets. I once had a cat that was exposed to insecticide used on a lawn. She almost died. I don’t know what insecticide would be used for chiggers or if it could affect horses.
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Goodness, I wonder what was sprayed. I don’t know any companies that don’t use pet safe chemicals.
I don’t love spraying chemicals all over the place, and personally I don’t use insecticides on my pastures. But sometimes we have to make allowances when there’s special circumstances. A horse that’s highly allergic to chiggers is one of those.
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Regarding my cat–the vet said it was organophosphate poisoning. This happened more than 30 years ago, so hopefully today companies use pet safe chemicals.
As for spraying pastures for chiggers, I don’t think that’s a good idea, for three reasons:
First, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the chemicals won’t kill only chiggers. They will also poison beneficial insects and maybe birds and other wildlife (field mice, moles, rabbits) that live in the pasture. Planting a pollinator garden would not solve that problem because pollinators would not know to avoid the sprayed pasture, and other wildlife would have no place to go.
Second, spraying is not a one and done solution. It would have to be repeated throughout the season, and that could be expensive. Repeat spraying also raises the risk that the chiggers would develop resistance to the insecticide.
Third, spraying could be harmful to the horse the OP is trying to protect. I’m no entomologist, but Purdue University has published information about chigger control that explicitly says not to treat areas where livestock graze:
“Recreational areas, such as lawns, parks, campgrounds, and golf courses, can be treated with such insecticides as diazinon - sprays, granulars, dusts; carbaryl (Sevin) - sprays, and malathion - sprays, dusts. Retreatment may be necessary after 2-3 weeks. Treat the grass, shrubbery, and other vegetation with which people may come in contact. Do not treat areas where livestock feed or graze.”
Here’s a link: https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-34/E-34.html
Rather than spraying, I think a better approach would be to keep the pasture mowed and apply fly spray that has permethrin to the horse’s legs, abdomen, and tail and to the Whinney socks. And if that doesn’t work, at least ask a lot of questions before soaking a pasture with insecticide to be sure it’s safe and won’t cause any unwanted collateral damage.
This thread has reminded me of Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” that warned about the dangers of pesticides. It was written more than 60 years ago, and at the time Carson was derided as a crackpot. She has since been proved right about everything she said.
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What about rubbing in some diatomaceous earth into his legs?
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Ok, when I read this yesterday I poo poo’d the idea until I started reading about it and now I’m buying some for also spreading in their stalls for fly control.
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@CindyCRNA, I presume you’re referring to the diatomaceous earth? If so, could you post an update after you’ve had a chance to try it and let us know how well it works? I had never heard of this . . . very interesting!
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