The art of killing B52 bomber flies

[Belg]

@Heliodoro;5787529

They are the only thing that makes my horse buck, thankfully he’s learned to give a little warning buck now as to say “hey Mom, on my 6!” instead of turning into a rodeo Bronc.

LOL Same with my Belgian. I don’t think she does -anything- without calculating the path of least resistance… but it’s pretty impressive when 1800 pounds of horse bucks under 200 pounds of rider. Kind of reminds me of surfing swells on a sailboat… fortunately she, too, has learned the value of the swat!

[SunkenMeadow]

Ugh, I had one following me on a trail ride last weekend. I kept brushing it off my horse, but then it kept landing on my helmet (it stayed up there while I was screaming doing an extended trot slapping myself in the head like a monkey on fire). I couldnt shake that sucker until I did a little hand gallop. The gal I was with got quite the chuckle out of my display. It certainly did not help any that I trotted through a huge spider web. All that stuff we teach people about nt screaming on horses went right out the window…I was the biggest sissy…

[awilly56]

I have a pretty nice deep run in shed. Last week my horses were going nuts in there. A friend of mine and I shot 162 B52s with Bug-Asalt guns. (The ammo is table salt). The gun knocks them down but you still have to step on them. And of course you don’t shoot them while they’re on the horses! It was very gratifying.

[goodhors]

This is a VERY old thread. Had not heard of the bug assault gun. You might want to start a whole new post about it, using it and effectiveness in total bugs killed, plus fun you have using it! Thanks for telling me about it.

[Bluey]

@goodhors

This is a VERY old thread. Had not heard of the bug assault gun. You might want to start a whole new post about it, using it and effectiveness in total bugs killed, plus fun you have using it! Thanks for telling me about it.

Right, here is a link to that:

https://www.bugasalt.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7vX6qf2Q3QIVV7XACh0Yyw4_EAAYAiAAEgJrifD_BwE

Never heard of it.

I would get the yellow gun, so anyone that sees it won’t think is a real gun.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

@goodhors

We have a ton of Cicadia Wasps, have never seen them kill a bomber. Their nest is near the main gates to paddocks, so the C. Wasps SHOULD have prime hunting if they actually do kill them. Maybe I have a different line of wasps than other folks.

We are careful of our C. Wasps, enjoy watching them each year. Extremely docile wasps and so BIG you can see everything they do, which is quite interesting as they drag things down into their dirt nests. They have never been aggressive to people or animals, though the cats eat them at times, small son pestered them a lot (I would have stung him!) C. Wasps don’t get upset if you walk by the nest with a horse or the tractor, or yourself, just buzz about without stinging or swarming like other wasps might.

And they are only out and about for short times in the summer. I think ours have gone back to hibernating, were only out for a couple weeks. No holes in the ground now, so they are not active now. Extremely nice bugs to have around.

I don’t think cicada wasps go for B52s. Too bad–the female catches a cicada, flies it or drags it into the ground nest, and lays an egg on it. The egg hatches, and the larva uses the cicada as a living food source. Supposedly the larva does not go for the nervous system, so the cicada lasts longer.:eek: . What a death!

Are B52s territorial? Riding tonight, and every time I passed a certain point in the ring, the monster appeared. Finally just avoided that section.

[Guilherme]

A ball cap makes a dandy “B-52 Swatter” as does glove. Of course you have to “ball cap swat break” and “glove swat break” your horse before you start. Ask me how I know!!!

But once the horse gets the idea that being swatted with the hat or glove is not disciplinary they stand for it reasonably well.

Folks sometimes forget, though, when killing BUFFs* you want to stomp them after you swat them down. I’ve had many hit the ground stunned and a few seconds later were airborne again. So knock 'em down and stomp 'em to death.

G.

BUFF is an acronym for a B-52 nick-name, "Big Ugly Fat F***r."

[Bluey]

I don’t think we have any of those BUFF monsters here.
Never mind, you can keep them all to yourself.

We do have tons of yellow and black wasps.

[JB]

@Guilherme

Folks sometimes forget, though, when killing BUFFs* you want to stomp them after you swat them down. I’ve had many hit the ground stunned and a few seconds later were airborne again. So knock 'em down and stomp 'em to death.

Or, you pick up the stunned MF’er and toss it to the chickens :lol: :lol:

[Limitless]

I have a sandal that is the perfect B-52 Weapon of Mass Destruction. I kept one on the fence post by the pass through to the dry lot and one on my front porch. I taught my old guy to run to me with the B-52, to the dry lot if I was in the barn or to the fence if I was on the porch. I could then run to him, whack the B%$ch (the females are the biters) with my sandal and then stomp on it. I then do a victory dance, which tells my old guy that we won, and he returns to grazing. The sandal was big enough to kill or stun (I guess I have big feet), yet light enough not to sting the equine. My kill rate this season was 35 via sandal and I think around 20 in my biting fly trap.

[Hej]

A friend of mine swats them and puts the stunned bug in a handy orb weaver web. Win/Win.