I love Smartpak outsmart which I believe is just peppermint oil based. Second favorite is Flysect w citronella
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So wild, because I never used OutSmart before, but my farrier had some with her when she came last week and sprayed my horse with it. He didn’t swish or stomp for literally the rest of the time I was at the barn (hours). And the gnats and flies were pretty pesky that day. And I’m in NC (eastern NC at that, with woods, swamp, river, etc. nearby).
Now that I’ve just bought two bottles of the stuff, watch it not work anymore.
Tri-Tec has always been my go-to, but my GAWD it’s expensive!!
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This is the one I use:
I’m sorry it was a shitty week 
At least it’s over, hooray, yay Friday!
I also use Ultrashield black. $74/gallon here
So $18.50/quart.
I do always shop around, but Santa Cruz is usually a good bet on price, highly recommend!
Their all natural spray option is also $25 a gallon. I dunno how it compares to the Spalding stuff, though. But $80 a gallon vs $25 a gallon is a big difference 
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I tell ya, so far so good with the OutSmart from SmartPak. For something natural, it’s surprisingly good to me. And the horse smells like a big piece of Wrigley’s gum. LOL.
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I will start off the season with something light like SPs Outsmart but by the 4th of July, I’ve usually switched over to something more potent. I like Endure the best but Ultrashield EX black is also pretty good. Nothing is 100% and nothing lasts the 2+ weeks they advertise. I like something for ticks and some of them like Ultrashield Sport don’t deter or kill ticks- not cool in an area where deer ticks and Lyme is rampant.
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Yeah, I did pick up some TriTec today at TSC for when things get real out there, and when we ride in the woods.
I’m also in tick ville, and this is one reason I like the stand alone permethrin stuff–being able to add it for tick coverage, or up the % of anything, is super handy.
I switched to the Fly Bye in 2022 and it worked great.
Last year…total failure…well OK, it might work for 5-10min. Of course I bought 2 gallons last year to stock up since it worked so well. Apparently, the flies have its mechanism of action figured out and have evolved?
Never mind, I will use the gallon I have and can at least get her groomed.
The reason I switched is that everything else was failing (in 2022), including Ecovet.
Susan
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Ecovet. Stinks to high heaven but works. One bottle for the entire season will do it for me.
For shows we use the Endure straight, to allow horses to pay attention during work. Seems to do pretty well for us. But SO EXPENSIVE when spraying several horses.
We have other cheaper sprays we alternate for working horses at home, that are OK, but nothing protects from all the insects. At times we use Cutters or Off added on for deer flies.
I am going to try a garlic/salt mix on their grain to see if that helps any. I have always been skeptical about the effectiveness after friend’s recommended feeding garlic. I talked to an Amish man while getting repaired halters back. He said he saw a visible difference between his working horses in fly quantity bothering them, and his son’s working horses (not fed the garlic mix) who were getting bit a lot more. Amish folks are frugal, usually avoid spending money on things they don’t think work as desired. So I thought it could be a “wonderful” product for us! Ha ha
Will be starting to feed it this week, as temps are warming up, bugs getting more numerous. At a Tablespoon daily for each, the bag should last long enough to judge results. May be worthless or MAYBE it will be helpful. After horses are back on full-time grazing, they get night-time turnout with little fly exposure in their daytime stalls. Flies would have them moving all the time in daylight hours outside, stomping hooves. Night-time turnout works best for us.
I have a horse that is extremely sensitive to flys (and other flying pests) in turnout and often can’t wear a sheet because the weather is too hot and humid for her. (She sweats terribly underneath the sheet–and I’ve tried several manufacturers’ sheets).
The Ecovet worked pretty well, but it was costly and everyone had to don a mask to spray it on, even when spraying it on outside the barn.
The Ultrashield in the black bottle is what I use.
I’ve been experimenting (aka torturing my horse, if you ask him). I’m in middle NC for reference, surrounded by woods and ride on trails and in the pasture.
- OutSmart: lasts maybe an hour. Works for tacking up under the fans (only a few black flies get in there), and maybe long enough to lunge in a less buggy area. Doesn’t work for the horseflies, especially if just hand grazing or puttering around too slow to outrun them.
- Pyrahna insecticide in the aerosol can: lasts long enough for a ride (tacking up, riding, untack). Seems to repel some of the horseflies and work in the buggier areas. Smells awful, avoid spraying around water buckets/hay/grain, not loving the idea of spraying up near the face with this stuff. A hassle for using on the full body.
- Simplifly: all horses are on this feed through. Either we are having a bad start to bug season or it just isn’t working as well this year. TBD on that, but it’s been WET this winter and we never got a freeze or any snow.
- fly sheets: work great for black flies, but we have a problem with horseflies getting under them and sending the horses running/spinning trying to escape. Happens with Schneider’s mosquito mesh, Rambo, you name it. Soon it’ll be too hot anyway.
- Shoofly leggins: 10/10 worth the $50-$60 for 4. Stay up, don’t rub, last a season or two of 24/7 wear in all weather except monsoons. TBD on the Temu knockoffs another owner got to try
- fly veils: bare minimum for riding, can’t function without one of these at minimum
- riding fly mask with nose: 10/10 worth the goofy look. Fine enough mesh I would pop over some basic jumps with it on, cuts down on the twitching and head throwing due to bugs on the face enough to function.
Next up is the black EquiShield, followed by OFF! Deep Woods. I almost bought permethrin 10 to add to the OutSmart but I chose to experiment with the “big guns” first. As far as ingredients, it has permethrin whereas the Pyrahna has pyrethrins. I’m not against using both 
. TBD - if anyone knows what repels the little triangle horseflies that like to get between the hind legs and on the belly, let me know!
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This is my go to. It seems to work better for me than anything else. It has gotten so freaking expensive though.
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We here in New England refer to them as May flies or gnats. The only way to deter them in my area is a physical barrier such as Swat,
We get gnats too - these are horseflies or maybe deer flies. About the size of your thumbnail, vs the horseflies we had in GA that were easily 2 inches or more in length. Regardless, they bite HARD and hang out on the horses’ bellies or get under the fly sheets and send them galloping around in a panic. I can handle black flies but these are gnarly!
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FWIW, though I haven’t used it in years, I found Flick’s (concentrate) to work really well for everything but horseflies (who are sight feeders, not smell), including deerfly, for the time it takes to ride. I don’t know if it would work if riding IN the woods, but when I rode in our pasture, including in the shade along the treeline which is where the deerfly like to attack, it was quite nice.
Plus, you can also use something like a Cashel fly mask for riding, and even their neck and rump cover, assuming they still make that
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Does anyone know what those big gnat looking things that fly right at your eyeballs are? Black flies maybe? They seem worst on humid or wet afternoons.
They are AWFUL this year Not sure if any repellents work on them? The horses say no.
I started using an IGR spray on my manure pile because of these things, and I think it’s helping (fingers crossed.)
I think you’re talking about midges or eye-gnats:
Midges can draw blood where they bite, while eye-gnats fly straight for the eyes.
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Eye gnats?! Who knew? Yeah, I bet that’s it, thank you! They are SO BAD
