So recently I have tried making my own home-made, organic fly spray. I REALLY thought it was working, but it could have just been the excitement that the spray smelled SO good and my mare was actually OK with me spraying it on her… Because she is still covered in the little buggers (no pun intended…)! :lol:
Has anyone made their own fly spray before and it actually works? Does anyone have a brand they use that they LOVE?
Reply here! Let’s talk about it! :yes:
Eco-vet is the only thing that has ever really worked for me.
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I am looking into that now! Has great reviews.
Following this thread because the flies have been absolutely horrendous this year. I couldn’t even get my guy halfway to the arena yesterday before we were swarmed with deer flies (the kind that really freakin hurt when they bite) and he was COATED head to toe in Eco-vet. Ugh. I’ve never seen them so bad in the 7 years I’ve lived here. I will say I love the OutSmart fly spray by Smartpak…it smells SO refreshing and I use it on myself, too. I don’t know if it would’ve been effective yesterday, though.
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I like Endure, haven’t had any luck with the “natural” type sprays. I also will use the Black bottle UltraShield, too.
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I had no luck with the smartpak spray :(. Which is too bad because it smells nice and my sensitive gelding didn’t react to it.
Eco-vet doesn’t work not worth the money the reek attracts more flies. My horses went just nuts with all the flies after them ,after putting the Eco-vet on them. Had to give both a bath the flies were covering them. the reek is enough to make you puke. Freedom 45 works fantastic put that on after both horses dried from their bath. Not a fly on either horse now for last 5 days.
I’ve been having decent results with a mix I found online.
Water, vinegar, peppermint oil, neem oil
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Don’t forget that the bigger flies (horse, deer, etc.) tend to go by sight and not smell so bug spray is basically useless. They like sunny areas and big animals. They’ll rarely go inside dark places like sheds/stalls - why it’s always a good idea to provide shelter during summer or do night turnout. Bug spray is kind of a marketing scam if you ask me ;).
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I didn’t realize that! Jojo has a big shaded shelter, but chooses to hang out under a tree instead :nonchalance: maybe she’ll change her hangout soon and get away from those bigger flies. Thanks for the info!
I think I will try this! The organic fly spray I made works for MAYBE 30 minutes and then they’re back to bugging (hehe) her. Poor babes.
I have developed my own Sweet Itch fly spray — which helps horses with sweet itch and “those damn little bumps” to the point that such horses are completely free of such maladies (sp?). It is also just a plain old dynamite fly spray for any horse. I researched and tested it on Goober last year, and this year I am selling it locally (Southern Pines). It is so popular that I will be patenting it and selling it (hopefully) in stores next year. So help is on the way. 
For now it is called “Goober’s Soon To Be Famous Fly Spray for Sweet Itch”. I think I will have to shorten the name once I begin to mass produce it. 
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I’ve had luck with the TriTec and the Endure. I like the “theory” of the Ecovet and like outsmart, it seems to do okay for lighter fly populations. I’ll probably keep some outsmart on hand for riding as we tend to not have many flies in our rings. The issue I have with the ecovet is (and I’ve never had this issue with a spray) it makes me cough violently whenever I spray it.
This year has been our WORST fly year ever. I am at a loss. My horses are on turnout, so fly sheets don’t work well because they become sticker infested messes. In past years, I put War Paint on the horse’s bellies, and any horse that isn’t showing also got it on their shoulders and butts - then I’d do Endure, and Pyrannah right before riding. This year, NONE of that is working. The flies seem to be eating and drinking it, and getting meaner and more plentiful.
I live in cattle country, so fly predators are not an option. Too much open land, too many cattle ranches - it would cost thousands to combat that level of space.
I’ve tried just about every. single. thing. My only other option is to take the horses off pasture - and that really isn’t the direction I want to go. So I’m following this thread with hope of a new product popping up!
Okay, I’m glad it isn’t just me. Every single time I spray the Ecovet I cough like crazy and so does anyone else remotely close to me.
I used Eco Vet for the first time this season and it was working great except for the horse/deer flies. 3 other horses on the farm do not use it and I can tell the difference from regular flies. I also use either Espree or Clac Deo Lotion mixed with Apple Cider Vinegar (instead of water) for daily spraying before I ride and only use the Eco Vet every other day or so and only for turnout. For riding I have a fly sheet quarter sheet which really helps with those horse/deer flies. I just purchased the Amigo Fly Rider which has the neck piece as well as the quarter sheet part for my more sensitive horse and I already love it…it is lightweight and the neck is detachable - I work him only in the quarter sheet then slap on the neck piece for the pasture/trail riding.
We have fly predators and use Farnam’s Flyteck 14 on our horses most days.
One horse is allergic to the yellow bottle, Pyrhana spray.
We have few flies, but everyone else is complaining, loudly, how bad they are.
Yesterday friends came to ride here and could not believe we didn’t have hardly a fly.
They say their horses at home are covered and nothing seems to work too well.
I think they will try fly predators, see if that is what is helping here.
Last year I swore by TriTech 14 and even recommended it on another thread a few weeks ago. This year it doesn’t work well at all for me for whatever reason. I got a sample of Ecovet in my Horse Box last year and it caused my horse to sneeze so badly his poor nose started bleeding! So that one is a no go. I tried a new fly spray from my local tack shop called “Bee free of flies” and it doesn’t work great either. The one thing that does always work extremely well isn’t well deep woods off, which I only used if everything else fails. I will also mention that farna
When all else fails, I’ve resorted to Deep Woods OFF in the past. I’m almost at that point right now because NOTHING else seems to be working well this season. I used to swear by tritech14 but for whatever reason it didn’t work this year. I also used to use endure religiously but it wasn’t effective for mosquitoes and they were rampant a couple years ago here. ecovet made my poor horse sneeze so badly his nose bled when I tried it.
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I have had good luck with Pyranha wipe and spray. I tried to the outsmart from SmartPak and it seemed like after 10 minutes they would swarm more so back to Pyranha I went. It seems to keep the flies off of him the longest. I also have mine on night turnout and his stall is sprayed with a fly repellent as well as the whole barn. All of us at the barn also ride in ear bonnets to try and keep the bugs at bay. It’s been a really hard summer so far in north Texas. Very humid and then torrential rain then ok for a couple days but the cycle continues.
