Fly spray for mosquitos

[taylorelaine]

Both of my horses are getting attacked by mosquitoes at night—one more so than the other. Last night, I went to check on him in the pasture and he was swishing his tail, stomping, and biting at himself. I had sprayed Equiderma earlier, but it didn’t seem to help, so I sprayed Pyranha (the yellow bottle). Even then, they were still biting him, so I applied a second coat and had to really saturate him. That seemed to help a lot—he immediately relaxed and continued grazing.

The only issue is that this morning he had hives on his chest and neck where I had mostly sprayed, so I’m thinking it must be a reaction to the Pyranha. The other issue is that I had to spray so much on for it to work and the bottle is expensive. Are there any other really good fly sprays for mosquitoes that anyone can recommend? I really prefer to go the more natural route, but I also don’t want my horses to suffer.

[Simkie]

Mosquito Halt is mosquito specific.

Getting rid of standing water or using mosquito dunks in standing water will help keep down mosquito numbers.

Buying fly spray by the gallon, preferably on sale, is absolutely the way to go. Smartpak might be doing a 15 or 20% off deal for memorial day, they often do holiday stuff.

[Calvincrowe]

I have resorted to DEET. The human kind, mixed with Repel X , to ward off the hordes we sometimes get here after a wet spring. It is the only thing that gave my horses relief.

[trubandloki]

I use Deep Woods Off during heavy mosquito times.

[emeraldcity]

Picaridin is more effective on mosquitos than DEET imo, and is supposed to be less harmful. We use this one for both human and horse (it’s marketed that way), it definitely helps- https://www.farnam.com/all-products/fly-insect-control/dual-defense

[clanter]

@Simkie

using mosquito dunks i

here the city will supply you with mosquito dunks at no cost, just show them that you live within the city and they will hand you several packs

[taylorelaine]

Thanks for the advice! It’s so weird because everything is actually completely dry right now, it hasn’t rained in weeks and there isn’t any sitting water - the mosquitos seem to swarm after sunset until about 10/11 pm. My one horse doesn’t get attacked as much, but my other horse gets giant bites all over and I’m thinking how much worse it’ll be when we do have sitting water.