Hey there! Just moves my yearling and mini home (YAY!!) and am curious about people’s preferences for fly control. I am considering a monthly release of predators, but what about the feed thru fly control supplements? For two horses, it wouldn’t be costly.
thanks in advance and drink another glass to the silly girl who bought a farm and brought her horses (well…some) home!
Solitude IGR is the best! it works really well as long as you don’t live close to people with livestock who don’t use it.
Thank you!! I was actually looking at that product. Our closest animal neighbors are about 20 acres away so I should be good!
i use simplfly and the predators and fans. it really seems to work well for me. i have 2 horses. neighbors are not too close. i pick the dry lot (where they spend the night) daily and routinely harrow my pastures (3-4 acres). I have a manure spreader which i spread on my hay fields
I feed a feed/thru, and have the automatic spritzers. BTW, the cans work in Glade dispensers, which are $5 - rather than $50 for the horsey version! AND you can adjust the frequency… https://www.glade.com/en/products/sprays/automatic-spray
Well, this is awesome! Thanks for the tip!
I use fly predators. If you choose that route–they work A LOT better if you don’t use fly spray in your stalls. The predators are sensitive to fly spray, too, so don’t poison your bedding! :dead:
OH!!! Well isn’t that convenient!!
I have always had really good luck with fly predators.
We had to cancel this years order for financial reasons. Lot looking forward to a summer without the predators but it will give me a good idea of how much they helped.
We use fly predators.
One summer we decided maybe they were not doing much and didn’t order, we realized by June how much they had been helping and since then have kept using them.
There is a clear difference in places that use them, horses don’t stand there stomping and switching tails until they break all hairs and are half length, and those with horses rarely acknowledging there are flies around.
If you use predators, be careful with other fly protection, don’t want to kill them.
We do spray horses lightly individually because of mosquitos, that fly predators don’t affect.
We try not to get that on any other than the horses themselves, so we don’t also kill the predators.
Another fly predator fan. They really work. Just got my first batch this week and have put them out. I used to have some of the Glade sprayers in the sheds – the horses would much around with them. How they reached them was impressive, but they were great at knocking them down and breaking them. I am not interested in ladder climbing more than necessary. Luckily fly predators really work.
Same here. I used the fly predators for several years, at recommended intervals and according to directions, but this works better here.
Fly predators don’t work if you have neighboring farms and/or backyard livestock that don’t use them.
One horse (currently) on 10 acres with only crop farms nearby (no livestock and mostly suburban area). First year with horse at home and first year at this property. We are trying fly predators and Simplifly, but it is way too early to tell if either is doing anything yet. We don’t have too many grown flies yet, but lots of smaller ones that gather on the manure. I do think though that I need to start both earlier next year. I started the Simplifly about 2 weeks ago and received my first order of predators about 3 weeks ago (but they only hatched and got spread out earlier this week). Currently we don’t have fans up, but we will be getting those in as well. With all of that + shoo fly leggings and selective turnout (keeping them in during the heat and sunrise/ sunset when the flies are the worst) I think we will be fine. The biggest issue is likely going to be the mosquitos.
I use predators and Solitude. But the number one thing that helps is to deprive flies of feeding/procreating zones. Pick up manure scrupulously and dump it immediately. Also, pick up feed buckets/pans and rinse/dump/flip them after every single feeding. It makes a huge difference.
Yes to the bolded text. Sanitation is 85-90% of the solution in my mind. I make sure my stalls are cleaned meticulously first thing in the morning. Manure is composted in 2 large bins that get turned regularly. Avoid having standing water for mosquitoes to breed in.
Have used predators for years with great success. Have never used a feed through because I never felt the need too.
When needed, I use mainly the citronella based fly repellent from Uckele/Zephyr’s Garden. In the few really bad weeks I use moderate amounts of either Bite Free or Mosquito Halt if I am actually aiming to kill the pests. I don’t like to over use it as you will eventually develop resistance. The active ingredient in the huge array of pretty colored fly spray bottles are basically all in the same chemical class. the barns I have been in that seemed to perpetually have the worst fly problems were the ones with the spray systems or dispensers.
There are older threads on this topic somewhere on this forum. I’ve given more detail of my control routine there, so won’t repeat it all here. Search and you will probably be able to find those old threads with lots of helpful suggestions.
My horse is moving home in the next few months. I bought Solitude to start a few weeks before he moves. Are fly predators going to help if we have a neighbor 10 acres away with a half dozen cows & goats?
I plan on keeping the barn clean, stalls & run out cleaned at least once a day. Pasture will probably be cleaned weekly. Manure pile will be at the very back corner of the property.
I like the Shoofly system but it’s not something I could afford to do now & not sure it would be worth it since there would never be more than 2 horses on the property.
I leased a small barn for my 3 horses on a piece of property that had a small herd of cattle. The entire farm was around 500 acres. The horse barn was 1/4 from the cattle pasture. It wasn’t my farm and I wasn’t in control of the manure pile placement or turning, or dragging fields…I just kept stalls clean and that was the end of the fly control I did there. I don’t think the flies were that bad
Now that I have my horses home I am able to do more for fly control. I have fly predators, keep stalls, run in and dry lot picked daily and I drag my fields as soon as they rotate to another. I don’t have any livestock that is kept within 3 miles of me. I feel like the flies are close to the same, maybe slightly less.
I think a large livestock operation is what creates a large number of flies.
You mentioned “monthly” release of fly predators. My personal experience comes from a Chicago area racetrack and speaking with the fly predator reps. We regularly had 1600+ horses on the backside and only used fly spray occassionally when horses were outdoors. The best practices put in place were:
Just note that fly predators do not affect the big biters - horse flies & deer flies.
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