Mosquitoes! Help!

[x-halt-salute]

My horse is boarded at a very well-maintained facility (read: no standing water) that nevertheless has a huge mosquito problem. This is our first warm season at the place, and due to nearby wetlands the mosquitoes are a nightmare. They’re plentiful enough to be a problem in the barn in the evenings and to create swarms in the arenas all day (incl. indoor!).

My special snowflake, being from an arid climate, does not deal with this well – she loses focus when under siege, kicks at her belly, does all manner of itchy dance, and even threatened to lie down and roll with my trainer (i.e. not a pushover) aboard today. She’s covered in welts from being bitten in her stall (she has a fly sheet and fan) and rolls so much from her itching that she’s gotten cast in spite of having casting strips around her stall. (This horse! I swear every day with her is like an episode of I Love Lucy!)

I’ve tried riding gear like the Cashel bug armor, with limited success, and unfortunately my delicate blossom of a horse reacts to Deep Woods Off. Any tips for arena bug control? Our indoor is fantastic in the summer except for this surprisingly high mosquito population. There are a few fat little birdies nested in there, but not enough, it seems, to eat all the bloodsuckers. I’d happily chip in for some better solution, and it’s possible that the owner/management would pursue mosquito abatement if there were some obvious or popular solution. As for why they’re in there to begin with, it’s a bit of a mystery. There’s no standing water near the arena, but they could be attracted to the dampness of mag chlor treated footing I guess (?)…

Anyway, I didn’t find much by searching but I’m hoping someone out there has a silver bullet to recommend. Help lumpy miserable me and my lumpy miserable horse beat these suckers!

[Ambitious_Kate]

The property and the wetlans need to be sprayed. Mosquitos are born in water; there are products which you can float in the water which kill mosquito larvae but don’t harm other plants or animals.

Changing the outside water troughs daily helps, not allowing things like old tires to sit around with water in them helps. Obviously your mosquitos are breeding in the swamp. The only thing to do for them is spray.

As for protection, the only things I’ve found which works is deet - deep woods off, read the lable should have deet at 40% and you can find heavy duty stuff up to 100%

[Marla_100]

For your horse, spray w/ Mosquito Halt. It does work but needs to be done each evening if the skeeters are bad. Also the Schneider/SSStack Mosquito
Mesh sheet has been recommended on the many COTH threads about mosquitoes and flies.
Also helps to keep the property mowed and grass and weeds trimmed short.
Walk around the property and look for standing water.

[ML]

Has any one tried this for skeeters ? https://www.etsy.com/listing/398913563/beet-tha-skeet-fly-off-spray?ref=shop_home_active_1

thanks

ML

[mfglickman]

What about bat houses? Bats are natural predators of mosquitoes. Also every place I’ve lived in New England and NJ has resorted to spraying at some point in the summer. You might check with the town where the barn is located to get an idea of when/how they do it.

[Ticker]

Design bug screens for your horses stall. Very easy to do.

Once you discover how nice it is, offer to help the barn owner retro-fit the barn and arena with bug screens.

Once the ‘other’ boarders discover how nice it is, suggest a barn screening party to build frames and put up slider hardware over the doors.

My barn has been bug free for at least 15 years and the horses are ‘lovin it’

[invinoveritas]

Spring for one or two mosquito magnet machines. They really work and are worth the price. One by the stall, and one in the pasture.
Spray horse with a good fly spray daily. No fly spray lasts for more than 24 hours.