UPDATE: Post 9: Mosquito Dunks & flies...help me remember

[2DogsFarm]

@Simkie 🤔 Reading your post I am mystified by whatever species it is that covers fresh manure in my stalls.

I pick stalls daily - 2 or 3 times - so the longest a pile sits is overnight: from after 10P to around 7A.
In that time, whatever it is develops enough to cover the pile in barely visible creatures that swarm as I pick to remove the pile.
Maybe they develop in the bedding?
Though a pile deposited on fresh dry bedding (pellets) will have the same swarm.
Maybe the bedding beneath the fresh stuff has the eggs/larva?

At any rate, spraying the stall floors, walls & grilles seems to prevent the whatevers.
After spraying in the morning, piles picked during the day & the following morning - before I spray - do not have the moving coating of ???s.
That’s good enough for me 😁

[Simkie]

@2DogsFarm yes, that’s the trick–where we see the adults is not where the eggs and larva are maturing. That’s why identifying the breeding grounds is so important. In my stalls, it’s the area around/behind the water tub where bedding collects and holds moisture. I can’t scrape it out without removing the tub and cinder blocks the tub rests on, so things–fungus gnats in particular–can breed back there.

Gnats are breeding somewhere on the stall floor or very low on the walls, near the floor. They are definitely not breeding higher up on the walls or on the grills. (Unless those areas have a way to hold moist, organic material!)

”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹

[Loves_to_ride]

Well, I could definitely use some suggestions because I’ve been spraying everyplace I can imagine flies breeding (1 1/2 gallon sprayer with 1 full dunk inside). I sprays the stalls, the manure dumpster, my gardens, around the water buckets, hanging plants, … I cannot find any maggots any place on my small property.

I’ve hung fly traps all around the property. They all seem to be getting fly activity.

I pick stalls at least 2x daily.

Water buckets emptied/cleaned at least daily.

I use Fly Predators and just did a bonus package.

I have a bazillion barn swallows, but I"m not sure flies are on their diet.

I’m tearing my hair out and the flies are driving my crazier than I already am!

I’m in New England (Massachusetts) if that helps…

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Simkie]

@Loves to ride is it possible that flies are breeding somewhere not on your property? Do you have neighbors with livestock? Flies will travel a surprisingly far distance.

If that’s the case, there is not much you can do :(😔

eta: it’s not even just livestock. Rotting vegetation (neighbors piling their grass clippings?) or other organic, moist areas.

But if breeding grounds are off the property, you’re kinda stuck with trapping and repellants.

[Loves_to_ride]

@Simkie the house next to me has mini-donkeys, alpacas, goats, sheep, and a mini-horse. I have no idea what they do for fly control? Another neighbor does compost kitchen scraps, grass clippings, etc. Hum, wonder if they’d mind me spraying their properties!

Thanks for your help!

[Simkie]

@Loves to ride oh boy, yeah, one or both of those properties are probably the problem!

You can use hanging fly traps along the perimeter of your property to get an idea of where they’re coming from.

I think Spalding might have a refer your neighbor program, too, for fly predators?

Good luck! It can be a real uphill battle when you can’t control where flies come from!

[dungrulla]

For what it’s worth, I buy the BTi granules from arbico and spread them using a seed spreader in the beginning of the spring. It does have a huge impact.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Arbico organics

[Jarpur]

We began using the BTi tea (made with granules we had on hand) due to this thread. Admittedly didn’t have a terrible a fly/gnat problem to begin with (to the point where a friend’s visiting ranch-raised mom made a comment on the relative scarcity of flies here), but we’ve been using a feed-thru for years, have automatic fly spray dispensers in the stalls, and used fly predators for several years in the past, plus hang fly traps and tapes. We also pick all manure daily, and compost it.

Well, fly traps that used to fill up currently attract only a handful of flies, while the fly tapes are catching few flies or gnats, because there are now practically none to be trapped or caught! We haven’t needed to refill the stall fly spray dispensers, either. Using the BTi is a minimal extra chore, and is saving us both time and money overall.

Thanks so much for this thread!

[Limitless]

Just bumping this up to see 1. If this is still working well for the folks having success with this and 2. To see how you get the granules to dissolve in water.

September/October is the worse stable fly season for me. I thought I was really under control this year (removed my manure pile early spring/started feed through fly control March 1st/3rd year of fly predators). I haven’t even bought ANY fly spray this year, I’ve just been using up the tiny bottle that came with the horse I bought this winter. But the fly population is starting to creep up. They are still not nearly as bad as previous years, but I’m afraid I’ll have a sudden explosion. I started this weekend spraying my manure pile and the fenceline of my dry lot with a mosquito bit tea using my 2 gallon pump sprayer. But my bits won’t dissolve! A little bit after 24 hours, but not completely. Am I getting any effectiveness out of what does dissolve?

[Simkie]

@Limitless

September/October is the worse stable fly season for me. I thought I was really under control this year (removed my manure pile early spring/started feed through fly control March 1st/3rd year of fly predators). I haven’t even bought ANY fly spray this year, I’ve just been using up the tiny bottle that came with the horse I bought this winter. But the fly population is starting to creep up. They are still not nearly as bad as previous years, but I’m afraid I’ll have a sudden explosion. I started this weekend spraying my manure pile and the fenceline of my dry lot with a mosquito bit tea using my 2 gallon pump sprayer. But my bits won’t dissolve! A little bit after 24 hours, but not completely. Am I getting any effectiveness out of what does dissolve?

They aren’t supposed to dissolve. Yes, it’s still effective–the water is inoculated with BTi.

[Limitless]

Thank you! I will continue daily spraying this week and hope for positive results.

[OTTBs]

I finally tried this about a month ago. First with hand quart sprayer, then my rechargable mister which is now dead. (Tried soaking the nozzle, no dice. Gotta find time to play with it more.) Bought a watering can but I think the holes are too big. It’s supposed to be 2 gal but it runs out SO fast.

I don’t know if the flies just died off in N IL but my horses seem to have hardly any bugging them. I’ve only treated their area a time or two, the manure pile a couple times, and my renter’s stalls once or twice. Oh! I put them in the water troughs too. Maybe that’s where most of the effect is coming from.

[seabreeze]

I’m still using the dunks in the 1.5 gallon sprayer. I solved my clogging problem by putting the 1/2 dunk in a small (2” x 2” maybe?) mesh wedding favor-sort-of bag and dropping the mesh bag into the sprayer and leaving it in there. I bought the mesh bags for $8 or so on eBay for 100 ct.

I think the fly problem is vastly improved. As Jarpur mentioned, my fly traps that usually fill up in less than a week now last for 3-4 weeks. Once daily I spray my manure cart, a low place behind the barn, and that’s about it. I don’t put a dunk in my trough because I empty it every other day or so.

This method is definitely something I’ll keep in my arsenal in future years.

[SugarCubes]

A little off topic, but thanks to this thread I learned what Mosquito Dunks were and bought a package to use in my trough. Threw one in, turned out the horses, went to bring them in and noticed the dunk was gone. Put in another one the next day, was gone that evening. I think one of my horses is EATING it! WTF?!? :eek::lol::eek:

[Simkie]

@SugarCubes

A little off topic, but thanks to this thread I learned what Mosquito Dunks were and bought a package to use in my trough. Threw one in, turned out the horses, went to bring them in and noticed the dunk was gone. Put in another one the next day, was gone that evening. I think one of my horses is EATING it! WTF?!? :eek::lol::eek:

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Are you sure? If you overflow the tank, they’ll float away. Or if you’ve got a horse that plays in the trough, it might get tossed out?

If you have a horse chomping down, post video! That sort of bobbing for apples would be hilarious!

(My horses 100% don’t do anything with them in the pasture tanks, or their stall water tubs.)

[Jarpur]

@SugarCubes

A little off topic, but thanks to this thread I learned what Mosquito Dunks were and bought a package to use in my trough. Threw one in, turned out the horses, went to bring them in and noticed the dunk was gone. Put in another one the next day, was gone that evening. I think one of my horses is EATING it! WTF?!? :eek::lol::eek:

I felt that one of my geldings was definitely the type to check out the dunk, and possibly remove it from the water trough, so I figured out a way to wedge it between the back of the float valve and the wall of the trough.

Still virtually no flies nor gnats here, although the droughty conditions have probably also been a contributing factor.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

I was sure one of my geldings would try “bobbing for the apple” with the mosquito dunk. So, I took a string from a feed bag, looped it through the middle of the dunk, then tied it short to a coil of copper tubing, and put them in the trough so the dunk is a few inches off the bottom of the trough. So far, so good!

[SugarCubes]

@Simkie

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Are you sure? If you overflow the tank, they’ll float away. Or if you’ve got a horse that plays in the trough, it might get tossed out?

If you have a horse chomping down, post video! That sort of bobbing for apples would be hilarious!

(My horses 100% don’t do anything with them in the pasture tanks, or their stall water tubs.)

Pretty sure it was the super nosy, gets-into-everything mare :lol: I put a new one in yesterday and it was still there when I brought them in so hopefully she decided they’re not very tasty!

[BroncoMo]

@Simkie

Nope!!! Totally different order. They’re Hymenoptera, not Diptera. Parasitic wasps vs flies. They are not affected by bti. Isn’t that cool?

(I use both, too. :D)

Why… why did I not know about all this sooner??? And how did I miss this thread initially? My fly population is getting ready to become 0 monday night when we have rain turning to snow and high teens by tuesday night. But this is such a cheap and brilliant control measure that will certainly be tried next year! Or maybe after this snow storm if the little bastards manage to hang around.