500’ isn’t nearly enough distance. If it was a couple miles, sure, even if some flies would fly that far, but 500’? Not worth it
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Well guess I’ll save my money then! Cause there are a whole bunch more cows just a little further down the road.
I keep my poop picked up pretty regularly and drag when it’s too hot to pick but evidently I should stick to my fly sheets and fly traps
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I tried fly predators for a couple of years and I couldn’t see that they did any good. This was pre-tractor days but I did try to push the wheelbarrow across the pasture. I am in central Alabama where it is wet, hot and humid - perfect fly breeding area even though I was surrounded by woodland and not other animals. Spalding was very good about sending the predators so I have no beef with them - just that they didn’t work very well. I also have problems with gnats, deer flies and stable flies that the predators don’t control. Especially gnats.
Then I splurged and put in a fly system. That was worth every penny and really knocked the numbers down combined with fans in the stalls. I also bought a used manure spreader and took the manure across the pasture to an unused portion of the pasture to spread.
Then last year I started having more flies than I was accustomed to having. I was spreading with the spreader every two or three days leaving it parked in the barn. I noticed maggots on the bottom of the load when I spread and then on the top of the spreader. The spreader broke and went off to have parts welded for most of the summer. So I had to clean stalls into muck tubs and the tractor bucket which I took out each day., The flies decreased substantially. I realized then that the life span of the flies was one day or so in the heat of the summer. I was breeding flies in the barn hallway in the spreader…UGH!!! This was a lesson that the manure pile ( or spreader in my case) needs to be tended to on a daily basis in the heat of the summer. If you have a good fly breeding place close you will have problems.
I recently watched a video (from Springhill Equine in Florida) regarding fly control. They said that fly traps should not be placed in the barn, but away from the barn, so that you are not drawing flies into the barn.
I’ve always placed them in the barn myself, but this advice makes sense to me. I’m going to change it up this year.
Yep, fly traps definitely go away from the barn. It’s useful to put them on the edge of your property to help figure out where your flies are coming from, or near things on your property that might be generating flies, like the manure pile. That way, you can see which areas (or directions, if flies are coming from elsewhere) need the most eradication & control efforts.
And, as you say, drawing flies to the barn with a trap is the opposite the goal! Not every fly that travels to the trap is caught, by placing traps in the barn, you’re just unrolling the red carpet for them to feast on your horses.
I was at a huge barn for years and we had a fly problem. The manure pile was outside behind the back end of the indoor by about 50’. The 40x200 barn and the 80x200 indoor were in one huge building. The barn has 19 stalls at the far end where most of the fly problems were. The other end had rooms including classroom and office and the lesson program was at that end. Repelling, trapping and killing flies for months is a PITA. There were 5-6 farm dogs and a bunch of barn cats, so it made a difference what you used and where you put it. I didn’t think predators would help much because the manure pile was so close to the building, but they did make a difference.
She decided to try predators, not expecting much. There were usually around 50 horses, half turned out 24/7 in a couple of large muddy fields. She put the predators along the edge of the manure pile and along the fences bordering the road and driveway. There was a huge improvement. Most of the time there weren’t enough flies to notice. I fly-sprayed my horse when the farrier was there but he didn’t need it much otherwise. I think she got 2 packages monthly and it didn’t take long to spread them. There were a few of those sticky strips that unroll hanging in the office and classroom for strays. The predators were very effective and not that expensive.
I use them and can tell the difference, typically at the beginning of fly season and the end, because here in california it can be hard to tell when that is, some times I cancel in the fall then it warms up and the flys. really seem to come out. I also have a misting system in my barn, but it is far enough away that I dont worry about it harming the fly predators.
I have about 30 draft horses and 20 cows along with some pigs and goats, and alot of chickens on 40 acres.
most of my horses and cows are out in pastures, I try and place the fly predators in the mulch around the base of the trees, simply because it is so dry and hot here I am worried a bout the eggs getting baked. I think I remember reading they typically fly about 100 feet so that makes it so they can pretty much get to most of my pastures.
Fly predators cut my fly population about 80 percent. I forgot to use them one year and the flies were back with a vengeance. I remove manure pile every 6 weeks and don’t use a misting system. I only put them in stalls and tackroom.
I use fly predators from Spalding and have been for many years (bonus: this year I got a free one year membership to US Rider for free!) plus Simplifly and a few bag traps. Flies aren’t much of a problem.
We have used fly predators forever and they seem to help.
One year we thought we could do without and by May we realized how much predators had been helping and started using them again and have since.
They help even with us only using them in the horse pens, barns and yard, with cattle all around us by the fences.
Before fly predators we used to have flies around the house’s door you had to shoo off before opening and running in. All gone since we started using fly predators.
We only use the predators and hand spray horses at evening feed because of mosquitos mostly, and that doesn’t seem to bother fly predators.
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Predators don’t fly at all. They walk. If you have loose chickens or near neighbors with horses, you don’t want predator flies. I used them for years until I got chickens.
Some of you may be familiar with Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. There are no vehicles on the island, everything moves by bike or horse. Back in 1976 I went to visit a friend living on the island. One of her jobs was fly control for the island. When I disembarked, we grabbed bikes, went to the Post Office, picked up a package, then biked around the island to the big stables where she scattered predators on the manure piles. It was a blast!
Fly predators DO fly, just not very far. They’re only looking for the closest pile of manure.
We have free range chickens, and I just don’t put the fly predators close to where they range, so not in the manure pile behind the barn, and not in any manure pile closer to their ranging area which isn’t far into the pasture.
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Thank you for this.
I was confused by the people who said they do not fly.
Mr. Trub actually talked to the people at Spalding because we have chickens that only free range for a bit, but the first place they go is to the manure pile and we were worried about putting the predators there.
Spalding suggested we put them out in a bucket hanging under the barn over hang (shaded) and let the predators find their way to where they wanted to be.
This technique has worked fine for us.
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