Fly Control - Python Insecticide Cattle Ear Tags

[Cbonadeo]

I found a tick on one of my dogs today, and someone in a dog forum that I’m a member of suggested tying a strip from one of these ear tags to a collar to repel ticks (as a cheaper alternative to Seresto collars). I got to looking at the tags out of curiosity, and several reviews mention hanging them from halters to repel biting flies. Has anyone ever tried this with their horses? Or hanging them from a fly sheet?

The flies are godawful here in San Antonio and my poor pony is being eaten alive, despite her fly mask and sheet. She just had a reaction to her Pyrhana wipe-on spray - I’m assuming because it’s finally hot out and I probably used too much, but switched her back to a water-based UltraShield anyway - so fly control is very much on my mind… (and if a box of these could help the pony AND the pups, I’d be happy lol).

These are the tags I’m referring to (the reviews on TSC talk about tick control, and a few reviews on VV talk about horse halters):
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/y-tex-python-insecticide-cattle-ear-tag-pack-of-20?solr=1&cm_vc=-10005

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e079e5-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&sfb=1&itemguid=3269d972-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&utm_content=16470&ccd=IFF003&CAWELAID=120295250000088284&CATARGETID=120295250000466185&cadevice=c&gclid=Cj0KCQjwla7nBRDxARIsADll0kCoc71gWj4tTEDx6bVyMD6xue9RhdaMVyIEZ1VEBCgtLpt9liKb6pgaAvz5EALw_wcB#tab-review

[SusanO]

Are these organophosphate or pytherin? At one time I was using fly wraps on my horse’s lower legs and I got the idea to sew a cattle ear tag to each wrap to keep ticks and flies away. My vet said to make sure it was a pytherin ear tag and not organophosphate ( SP) - Quote " It is hard to kill a cow and easy to kill a horse". The pytherin ear tags did not bother the horse.

[Simkie]

The “tick” ingredient in seresto is flumethrin and the active ingredient in the python tag is zetacypermethrin. These are both pyrethroids (synthetic pyrethrins) but they are not the same.

Zetacypermethrin is unlikely to hurt your horse, though, so you can give it a try. Previous threads about tying cattle tags to halters or face masks or braiding them into the mane report mixed results–some people swear by it, some people say it’s worthless. I don’t really see how a two inch scrap of plastic can possibly protect a whole horse, though?

IIRC, the black ultrashield contains cypermethrin, which would be closely related to the zetacypermethrin in the tag. You might try that first, to see how it works on your specific flies, before buying the tags.

[beowulf]

Why not use Equispot? Maybe try on a single spot before full administration but… I think it works well.