Tips for Keeping Flies Under Control Around Your Horses

 

Flies aren't just a nuisance, they're also a danger to your horses. You must have a management in place to combat them so that they do not bring disease into your stables.

1. Prevent Flies From Breeding
The most important step in preventing flies from breeding is to limit moisture. Stable flies love to breed in warm, moist manure, so keeping it shoveled out of your stalls and in a location outside the barn, spread thinly, where it will be dry. You must handle your manure effectively or it will become the number one place for your flies to breed. Daily collection is the first step. If you plan to keep your manure and compost it for fertilizer, sprinkle the wettest portions with hydrated lime.

2. Stop Larvae Hatching
Oral larvicides are an excellent way to help eliminate larvae for flies such as stable flies; and it is relatively cheap. The chemical that kills the larvae is passed through the horse and into the manure and will help your manure compost faster. You can also invest in small, harmless wasps that will eat all the larvae. You will need to set them on the manure and will need to replenish the supplies of them regularly to help keep the population under control.

3. Capture Adults
Any sort of commercial fly trap will work for this. Hang them wherever your greatest concentration of flies is. Try to avoid using insecticides.

4. Kill Any Remaining Pests
The few flies that will be left can be killed through light usage of things such as insecticides or by hanging a number of fly zappers around your stable and manure.

5. Protect Your Horse
The last step is to protect your horse from any new flies that may make their way into your stable. The bites of blood-sucking flies such as stable flies are painful and your horse will stomp to stop them from biting. If a number of flies manage to get your horse on a regular basis, the animal can injure itself severly. Protect your horse with repellents such as citronella wipes, fly masks, and even hanging fly strips or tags off the halter of your horse to keep the pests under control constantly.

 

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