Horseflies!!!! Help!!!

[ericinok]

We have been invaded by horseflies. They began getting bad a few weeks ago, but lately they have reached the unbearable stage. We began boarding a friends horse a couple of weeks ago, and the horse is constantly swarmed with them. Spray seems to work for the horse, but not for us humans.

They are so bad around our pool that the kids hardly swim anymore. I bought a fly trap that I had read would attract them and kill them, but all I've gotten so far is regular flies. I then read that horseflies are not attracted by odor but by sight. I can't believe that the internet was wrong!!

If anyone has a solution for this problem, please pass it along. I really don't blame the horse, because it hangs out around the bard and in the arena, which is a long way from our pool area.

I will send a box of cookies to any CBN'er that can solve my problem.

[egon]

I can remember them horsefly's on horses. You could rub the back of your hand down the horse and have it covered with blood from the flies. When they bit you it seemed they also took out a chunk of yourself. Sometimes it seemed as if they ate meat.

For the animals you may be able to purchase a rub [ long tube like thing saturated with stuff to keep flies away] .

For people it's easiest to limit outside time till the Horse flies go away! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

That or carry a bat and get some batting practice!! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

Buy two or three of these Fly Swatter and turn the kids loose. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Eric, Try Permethrin on high cotton content outer wear (long pants and long sleeve shirts. I'd try the Permethrin first. For exposed flesh (face, neck, wrists, hands not protected by outer clothihng (oh, aND DO YOUR SOCKS TOO.)... There is a micro encapsulated DEET product in a creme base. IT is a time release system with the DEET in the microscopic protein balls. IT lasts quite a while and gives the user a much lower dose of DEET than regular topical applications. It will protect you from ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, and such. If the horseflies still get to your face and neck (unlikely) you can wear head covers made of mosquito netting. Say you wqnt to go to the barn to do horse stuff and don't want to get doped up with DEET, just ware your treated clothes and don the head net.

You can buy the Permethrin as an aerosol spray at Wally World etc. IT is for spraying cotton clothing NOT YOUR SKIN. Your body chemistry will pasivate the stuff if applied to you. Applied correctly to cloth it will last a year or 50 hot detergent washings. It is what the DoD has the cloth treated with before cammies and fatigues are made from it.

If you are nervous about using a CHEMICAL you can read stuff for it at Atlanta Center for Disease Control site. Permethrin is not something I would drink or bathe in but it is pretty safe when used as directed. It is the active ingredient in the shampoo they use on little kids who bring lice home from school.

Permethrin can be bought at the ag store for about $60/gallon for 10% solution (or in smaller quantities.) It is avail from several internet sources in higher percentages for way way higher prices.. I buy it at ag stores. A gallon of 10% is the equivalent of about $1800 (yes, almost two grand) at Wally World aerosol prices. This is an effective chemical to but in the big sock looking things that skim over a horses back when they go to feed (fly rub?.) For cattle it is often diluted with diesel. I don't know the amounts to use or how to dilute for horses.

I don't know how to trap or otherwise rid you of flies but I think you can prevent the horses and people from being bitten.

I really like FAMOUS AMOS but any kind of "Proper Biscuit" is fine.

I have mused about building a LASER fly deterrent. You can buy a green solid state LASER for a few hundred$ that is powerfull enough to burst a balloon or burn a hole in a plastic trash bag. If you can bait flies so they enter the "kill zone" of the little death ray they will be fried and fall to the ground or into a "funerary receptacle for easy disposal (or use as fertilizer.)

I also mused about using cheaper and less powerful IR LASERs to blind flying insects. It might be interesting to watch them wander aimlessly. Of course in California (left coast) or even the right coast this would probably be illegal and carry immense fines and prison terms.

Pat

[gator]

When I had my horses a neighbor used to release horse guard wasp's that would make it over to my horses. The horse guard wasp preys on horse flies and are neat to watch going after the horse flies [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] . Ask you feed store if they can get them for you.
I googled them and could not find a distributor, but here is a link to wikipedia about them.

[Pat]

Thanks for the interesting link. We must not have those around here as I have never heard of them. I have a buddy who is a PhD Entomologist whom I can quiz about introducing some. I wonder what they eat if they can't find enough horse flies??????? I don't want my story told via a low budget creepshow.

Pat

[Michael]

Go to your local feed store or co-op and try some "Quickbayt". I use it at my poultry houses and the flies very seldom fly away after ingesting it, they flip over and flap and jump until they die. The packaging doesn't specifically say if it will kill horseflies but it doesn't say that it won't either. I would try small container first, you will know immediately if it works. Good luck.

[archangel]

Look in Hobby Farm magazine for fly wasp dealers in the add section!
Let them loose and clear your sky of every fly without chemicals and poisons!

http://www.kunafin.com/information/equestrian.pdf

The more fly's you have, the more the wasps breed, the more flies they eat until the only thing left are the wasps, then they die out, but only after they do the JOB!

It's the only way to go!

[pitt_md]

Fly Preditors kick A$$. My horses were a huge burden in the summer spraying in the morning and after work and on the weekends. I tried Fly Preditors and we don't have flies problems anymore.

[KimND43]

We have epidemic horse flies since 3 years of standing water and no crops. Horses fight all day long out on pasture, miles from home, with hundreds covering their bodies. No insecticide works, as horse flies only work by sight. We purchased 4 Epps fly traps, and they DO catch horse flies! You have to clean them out every other day as trays will be full. We collected a full gallon of dead (stinking!) horse flies every other day, a quart at least from each trap. Five gallons of horse flies a week, all summer. But now in 2012, they are the worst ever. So despite the zillions we eliminated, no change for the horses. They can't graze at all during day, walk in circles all day long. Then at night the mosquitoes. Again, the Epps fly traps do work but have not eliminated them for us.