Fly Protection

[dominiquer60]

We have had horrible fly populations this summer, deer flies, green heads, those huge 2″ B52 bombers, face flies, stable flies, you name it. They drive all of the stock crazy and even thought the horses have a pond, they would not leave the shed and barnyard to drink so we started giving them a water tub in their yard to keep them hydrated.

I was looking for some fly bonnets that would fit our horses a while back. I know of a couple folks that use them for field work and I thought that maybe these would be nice for the horses and cut down on some of the rubbing and fiddling around when I let them rest. I found one of these at the feed store (http://www.chicksaddlery.com/page/CDS/PROD/FBO200) but it is a really tight fit on our smallest horse. I searched some more and found this sight http://www.drafttack.com/shopsite/sc/productsearch.cgi?storeid=*1c8098e591f9f2b7e0d547bacf2b32cb, I ordered a turnout (grey) mask for our old mare who gets sweet itch bad and a couple of the ear nets (black fabric thing that only covered the ears and poll, doesn’t look like they stock them anymore). Instead of a pair of ear nets, they sent the slightly more expensive full riding fly masks (draft size), so we tried them out and they work rather well. They took the all of the horses very little time to get used to them and once they figured out the flies were not going to get their ears, they really settled down.

When these fly masks are used in conjunction with the body fly nets and Ectophyte fly spray, we had some much happier horses to work with.

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[Billy Foster]

Erica
I use turnout fly masks over my bridles quite often and have found it helps my guys as well. I have wanted to get a fly sheet like you are showing but have not gotten around to it yet. Do you find it effective? One thing we have done the last couple years was get fly predators, they only work for the house fly looking fly’s but reducing their population has helped.
Billy

[dominiquer60]

Billy,

I have heard good things about fly predators, but I wonder how effective they would be. It would probably be easy to treat the working stock, but we also have 200+ cattle all over the place and I am not sure that our efforts at the horse barn would be noticed, or if we could afford to treat the whole farm.

Our fly masks fit right under the bridles which I like. The body fly nets are effective, the flies can still get to their legs and necks, so that is were we focus the fly spray. I had problems with the net shifting yesterday, but I think that a fastener on the spider ring should fix that problem.

Erika

[Billy Foster]

Last year we got an order of predators per the companies instruction ( enough to deal with 4 horses, 50 chickens and 20 sheep). Fly populations though the summer were very tolerable. I did spray the horses now and again when we were working but the stock was not experiencing stress from fly’s. This year I, like a fool, said “let’s not get the predators since the fly’s were really not that bad last year”. Well come the summer heat the fly’s were terrible, we had to get a double dose of predators shipped to us to get the population of fly’s back down. Now, a month later, the fly’s are around but definitely not a big problem. We still have plenty of horse and moose fly’s but the biting house fly’s are not an issue. I am not sure how many you would have to get to deal with 200 head of cattle. We used Spalding laboratories if you are curious. https://www.spalding-labs.com/

Where did you get the body fly nets?

Billy

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for the fly predator info I will look into it. I am not sure where the nets came from, but Weaver makes them and My Draft Horse Superstore carries them. https://www.mydrafthorse.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=322

[wild millers]

Has anyone had experience with the EPPS fly traps? A trap designed to catch biting flys..they claim up to 20 acres of protection with one unit! A neighbor of ours has two, one for her horses and one for their cattle herd. They seem pleased with it and recommended it.
http://www.horselineproducts.com/eppsbitingflytra.html
We’ve just ordered two of those full body fly nets from Peach Lane Harness in PA for $34 dollars each, half of the price of the nets at our local tack store.

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