Fly control at boarding barn

[TBFAN]

I moved my horses to a small private barn that is close to me, in order to better care for my old horse who is on stall rest, and decent pasture for my young horse. It is almost completely self care - I supply everything, and owner feeds and turns out. There are only a couple of other boarders who rarely come out.

Owner has lived on property for years, and had horses when he was married. Property has been in his family as a farm for generations.

The problem is they have NEVER done any kind of consistent pasture or manure management. The owner’s ex-wife made an attempt at fly predators one time, years ago, but never repeated it.

The manure pile sits 50 feet from the barn - it has never been spread or dragged. Owner has a tractor but no spreader.

I’ve been boarding for 30+ years and have never seen so many flies at one barn. There are thousands swarming over my feed barrels, and sitting on any leftover grain my old horse leaves.
The owner’s old barn dogs are covered in fly bites.

I try to keep mess to a minimum and always sweep and clean. I go through a quart of fly spray a week. I have fly tape and fly traps all over the barn. I have fans up in the stalls and a mask on the old guy.
Its far too hot and humid for a fly sheet - heat index of 115 today.

My question - is there anything I can do myself to improve the situation? What would be required for improvement? I’m looking for ideas I could do myself, or convince owner to make an effort on.
Owner is very passive and low key but not really open to making changes to the way he has always done things.
I don’t want to have to move, but this problem is the worst I’ve seen.

[netg]

Possibly diatamaceous earth (sp?). My trainer has been using it this year and I haven’t even used fly spray in a couple weeks. It’s insane. It’s way less expensive than fly sprays, and he’s just lightly sprinkling it on manure piles when he walks by and isn’t in stall cleaning mode (all open pipe corrals), the trailer piled with manure he takes off property, etc. He is on his first bag of it, and it’s not very expensive.

[tpup]

The barn owners need to go on the Fly Predators website and watch the informative video. It is not just advertising Fly Predators but taught me ALOT about flies. The flies are breeding big time in that manure pile. It needs to be dealt with IMO! We do double doses of fly predators and keep our pile FAR from the barn. We have almost no flies in our barn. Like almost zero! We have our pile removed twice a year, and I pick fields from time to time. WATCH THE VIDEO. It’s a great way to spend 9 minutes (I think it’s about 9 minutes)

[GoodTimes]

My only suggestion would be the fly predators. It isn’t really your call to be moving the manure pile and you’ve already got traps, tapes and spray. I worked at one barn that had an auto sprayer in the feed room, it sprayed once every 30 minutes, not sure that it made a difference though.

My parents have 190 acres with 20 of it being swamp/wetland. Impossible to keep the mosquitoes/black flies/deer flues from breeding in there, but she uses the fly predators in her manure pile. There are virtually no typical barn flies on the property. Granted there are only two horses, but they usually have 5-6 beef cattle out in the front field for the summers.

[pony4me]

If you like everything else about the place, and it works for you and your horses, maybe just eat the expense of monthly fly predator shipments and sprinkle them on the manure pile. It may take a while to get them under control, but the key is consistency.

[SMF11]

Another vote for do the fly predators yourself; though I may be the only person for whom they did not work. If the BO is open to it, and there’s a place to move the manure pile to, you could pay for that too (I’m guessing it would cost you less than $100, IF there’s a place to put it, and IF there is someone you can hire to do it).

There may be other reasons for the flies, though. In my case there are herds of dairy cows within half a mile, as well as a composting operation even closer, and that is my best guess as to why I have flies despite using fly predators (3 years in a row before I gave up), harrowing the fields etc.

Fly spray pretty much does nothing to deter flies. It is good for keeping ticks from biting.

If you love the barn otherwise, definitely do everything you can to solve the problem!

[2ndyrgal]

EQuisect fly spray works really well. It’s expensive, it smells good, it works wonderfully. We have cattle across the street, and our neighbor doesn’t really have a manure plan… My manure pile, which gets emptied about once a month (two horses) is right outside the barn. I have zero flies in my barn or on my horses as long as I spray them. We have fans in the barn. My neighbors cattle and my other neighbor’s horses are covered with flies. Mine are not.

[DHCarrotfeeder]

[QUOTE=TBFAN;8709054]

My question - is there anything I can do myself to improve the situation? What would be required for improvement? I’m looking for ideas I could do myself, or convince owner to make an effort on.
Owner is very passive and low key but not really open to making changes to the way he has always done things.
I don’t want to have to move, but this problem is the worst I’ve seen.[/QUOTE]

If you know how to run a tractor, request whether you can “turn over” the manure pile. Flies have a tough time surviving the intense heat when the manure is actually composting.

David

[fordtraktor]

How many boarders are there?

It might be too late this year but I would suggest the barn add a fly control product. I use Solitude but have used Equitrol in the past. I add the cost to my board rates when I decide what to charge annually for board, and spread the cost over the year though I feed it from April to November. My boarders appreciate the better fly situation, I think – no one has ever objected to the program in any way.

I think the feed through is more effective than the fly predators but other people seem to like the predators. i didn’t notice them making any difference. The feed through makes a substantial difference. I don’t have “stable flies” though it doesn’t get rid of gnats or mosquitoes.

[Chestnut_Run]

Depending on how big the barn is, you could try fly misters. With the individual sized ones, one mister does a 12x12 or 12x16 stall pretty well. Maybe put one in each stall, one in the feed room, one in the aisle? like these http://www.jefferspet.com/products/cv-classic-dispenser-only?via=5338848b9fa2600f00000196%2F533884939fa2600f00000239

[Bluey]

One more idea is to use shade screens in certain places so your horse can get flies off his back and sides by walking thru them and inside wherever he is there will be minimal flies.

Also a fan inside where your horse can get access to it will keep air moving and flies unhappy.

Fly predators do work wonders, as we found out when we tried going without.
They truly make a big difference, we don’t have hardly any flies and that is all we are using, do use a bit of fly spray for mosquitos mostly.

After you have some kind of program for a year or two, you should notice a big difference.

[csaper58]

Can you cover most of the manure pile with clear heavy duty plastic? That will help it heat up fast, and kill some of the fly larva.

Another vote for Fly Predators.

[TBFAN]

I would definitely consider buying the fly predators myself - they did work at the last barn I was at in Texas, but the owner there was diligent about using them every year and I don’t think I’m going to be at this place for the very long term. If I got the fly predators and put them in the manure pile - do you think I’d see a difference this year? We have “summer” temps until well into October here.

I’m wondering about the suggestions to cover the manure pile - I could try that myself, it isn’t over a large area. Should I do that for a better result in the short term?
I assume I shouldn’t cover the manure pile if I’m going to use the fly predators, so do one or the other, right?

[TBFAN]

Also, I love the idea of shade screens like cool curtains. Has anyone using them had any trouble acclimating the horses to them?
My young horse is not the sharpest fellow and I fear it would take him some time to work out going through the curtain on his own. Maybe I’m underestimating him, but some days I don’t think so!

[trubandloki]

I have found the people at Spalding to be very informative and honest. It might be worth sending an email asking them if using predators will help with your shorter term problem.
I think Predators will minimally cut down the amount of flies.

[csaper58]

[QUOTE=TBFAN;8711572]
I would definitely consider buying the fly predators myself - they did work at the last barn I was at in Texas, but the owner there was diligent about using them every year and I don’t think I’m going to be at this place for the very long term. If I got the fly predators and put them in the manure pile - do you think I’d see a difference this year? We have “summer” temps until well into October here.

I’m wondering about the suggestions to cover the manure pile - I could try that myself, it isn’t over a large area. Should I do that for a better result in the short term?
I assume I shouldn’t cover the manure pile if I’m going to use the fly predators, so do one or the other, right?[/QUOTE]

I would cover the existing manure pile with heavy duty plastic, seal the bottom as completely as possible and start a new pile close by for the Fly Predators. Also apply FPs to any manure in the paddocks and pasture.

www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in856 here is some info on soil solarization from Florida U.