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So I recently moved to a larger parcel of land (45 acres xD I keep outgrowing land whoops) and the flies and musquitos are insane. Which is weird because we live close to a river but its quite fast and people die in it all the time because of the current. Other than that the only water is a pond a 1/2 mile down in a cattle field and my water trough, which we clean out often to keep larvae and algae out of it.
The bugs need to stop. We smudge every single night and spray the horses with bugspray and blanket them, but my gelding keeps ripping them from rubbing against trees and stuff. He also has gotten quite good at taking the fly mask off and leaving it somewhere in the field. So I guess what Im wondering is how on earth can I stop the bugs? |
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Does anyone have experiance with fly predators? Do they actually work? |
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For your gelding I reccomend Neem shampoo baths and lots of outsmart. Outsmart for the bugs, the shampoo for the rubs. You can look into a different fly mask, but probably not worth the time or money if he's going to trash it in a day. Keeping the land as clean as possile will help with the fly problem. Clean your horses well, get every part of their body. I would reccomend dumping your manure far away from the horses, the manure piles are like magnets. Fly predators work, we use them at my barn. TL;DR: keep the place clean and get some medicated shampoo on your horse for rubs. Hope this helps! :) |
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Most of those pesky insects that enjoy annoying the horses breed in manure, contaminated hay, mud or marsh, and/or still water areas (ie troughs, ponds, etc.). So the best way to try and stop the problem from the source is keeping the place as clean as possible with waste piles located away from where the horses are at. Dump and refill waters very frequently and scrub the troughs clean when they start to dirty up. Muck out manure and hay that's not fit for eating whenever it pops up. And if the ground where you're at stays pretty wet and/or muddy, make sure you have a good drainage system for the land so that there isn't lots of still water there for bugs to breed. Next, I would %100 recommend setting up fly traps. Not sticky strips like you'd hang in a house, but trapping bags and bottles set around where the horses live, or just on the property in general. We collect SO many bugs in our traps and the horses end up needing a lot less help with fly prevention because of it. Sheets, bug spray, and bathing are good steps to take as well. My horses are usually perfectly fine with just a face mask and bug spray (so long as the spray is from a good brand), but keeping them clean does wonders and full body protection will help keep bugs out of places that are hard for the horse to reach on their own. If you're still having trouble after this and you're horse gets stalled, stick up nets in the openings of the stall. And whether the horse is stalled or kept outside 24-7, doesn't matter, setting up a fan where the horse hangs around will help stop bugs with poor flying ability from getting onto your horse. |
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