Do you have horses? If so, you know that flies can be a huge nuisance. Not only are they annoying, but they can also transmit diseases. That’s why it’s important to keep your barn sprayed with a good barn spray for flies. In this blog post, we will discuss five of the best barn sprays on the market today.
We’ll also provide tips on how to use them effectively!
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Barn Flies
Annoying flies are known for being mean. They are also known as biting flies. These insects bite their hosts in painful places causing irritation to their body. Also, they bother horses and cattle a lot, but they will also bite people and any other blood-filled creature they can find.
Horse flies have four different stages of life: the egg, the fly larvae, the pupa, and the adult fly. Most species take about a year to go through this whole process, but adult horse flies only live for 30–60 days.
Life Cycle of Horse Flies
The life cycle of a horse fly has four stages. They have four stages: the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the adult. Each species reproduces in a slightly different way. Most of the time, adults choose their breeding place near water to lay their eggs. They are very drawn to places with an adequate amount of water because that’s where they usually mate, drink, lay eggs, and eat.
You can keep their numbers down by getting rid of water sources that aren’t needed around your home. The time it takes for the eggs to hatch depends on how hot or cold it is. When it’s warmer in their breeding place, eggs hatch faster. When the eggs hatch, the insects’ larvae live in a moist place, like the mud of a lake or the water in a pond or puddle.
In many species, the larva changes into the pupae stage by digging down into the ground. Depending on the species, they sleep underground for different amounts of time. For example, the larval stage of Tabanus lineola lasts about 48 days. Before becoming pupae, the larvae often go through more than one molt.
Most species only spend a short amount of time in the pupae stage. For example, T. lineola spends anywhere from 7 to 16 days as a pupa. When the temperature goes up, both the pupae stage and the time it takes for the eggs to hatch get shorter. The pupae of flies that live in warmer places grow up faster than those that live in colder places.
Effective Fly Control Methods
The following are some fly control options you can choose to help control fly population or kill flies in processing plants and barns.
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Manure Management
Getting rid of a manure pile in the right way is probably the most important fly control option you can do to control insect pests. Stable flies are the most annoying biting flies that bother horses. They lay their eggs in horse poop. Houseflies also like to lay their eggs in manure piles.
The best way to keep the number of these flies down is to clean up your horse’s stall or paddock often. Also, you should clean the aisles, turnout areas, and riding arenas. Clean at least once a day, but if you can, do it more often.
When manure is scooped up, it should be moved to a pile far from the barn or put in a dumpster with a lid until it can be taken away.
Flies also like to lay their eggs on old, dirty bedding. Every day, take out any wet shavings or straw from your horse’s stall to keep the number of flies down.
Moisture Control
Flies like wet areas and look for them to breed in. Look around your farm premise, check milk rooms, seed houses, swine houses, a barn area and outside premises for faucets, sprinklers, and pipes that are leaking. Look for places where water collects after it rains.
If your horse or dairy cattle has a favorite spot to urinate in his stall or paddock, you can bet that flies are laying their eggs there. Put down materials that can soak up water to help get rid of the urine. Keep urine to a minimum in box stalls by cleaning them often and using bedding that soaks up a lot of liquid.
Automatic spray systems
Depending on the type of horse fly spray system you are looking at, there may be some differences, but these are the general rules: automatic horse fly spray systems are electronic horse fly spray containers that can be set to release fine droplets of fly sprays into the air at certain times.
Horse fly sprays systems don’t need much attention. This type of fly control system saves you from spending hours every day hunting down fly population, killing, and spraying fly sprays in your barn by hand.
Most good, high-quality fly low pressure spray systems for barns will let you set them up and almost completely forget about the fly problem. You will have to change the batteries and put more fly spray in the device from time to time, but other than that, you can focus on your other work.
When they are in the right place, automatic barn fly control aerosol dispensers can keep a steady mist of aerosol spray going in your barn and make sure that no corners or sides are missed.
Beneficial Insects
Some use biological fly control methods to get rid of flies in an eco-friendly way. Small parasitic wasps are easy to find, and they kill fly larvae before they can hatch. Signing up for a monthly delivery of these bugs that eat flies can help keep the number of flies down in your barn when it’s fly season.
The wasps are shipped while they are still in the egg stage. They don’t hurt people and are so small you can barely see them. Once a few of the wasps hatch in the plastic bag after delivery, you spread the contents in and around your horse’s living area.
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Traps
Fly traps come in many different styles and work by luring flies in with their color or smell. The fly can’t get out of the trap once it lands on it or walks into it, so it dies.
The simplest kind of fly trap is one with a sticky surface. The color, which is usually orange or yellow, makes the flies want to land on it. They can’t fly away because the glue-covered surface sticks to their feet.
Other traps lure flies in with food. Some traps have water inside, and because the flies can’t get out, they drown. Others just lock them in the container, where they can’t get food or water and die.
Sticky fly traps can be hung anywhere flies gather, but they should be out of reach of horses who might want to check them out. Place baited traps far away from stalls because they will bring more flies to the area before the insects get caught.
Make Your Horse Healthy: Provide Supplements
For long lasting results, give your horses supplements that stop and repel flies from landing and breeding in manure or that stop flies from biting. Chemicals called insect growth regulators (IGR) stop flies from reproducing.
This product control flies by affecting the pupa stage of their lives. When the IGR’s active ingredient is in the horse’s manure, fly larvae can’t grow up to be adult
A feed-through product with an IGR is added to the horse’s food every day. When they feed on this product, it goes through the horse and ends up in the horse’s waste. The IGR doesn’t hurt the horses, but it does a lot of damage to the barn fly population.
People say that these fly-repelling ingredients like garlic, apple cider, yeast, and other natural ingredients in supplement formulas stop livestock pests from biting. You have to feed your horses with these products every day for them to work.
Cover-Ups
No matter how well you get rid of flies, you can’t get rid of every single one. Use fly sheets to keep these biting pests away from your horses’ sensitive areas.
Fly masks are the best way to keep flies away from your horse. Face flies are known to eat the mucus in your horse’s eyes, which can irritate the horse and possibly spread disease. You can also use a mask with ear covers attached to keep gnats from getting into his ears.
With a fly sheet, flies won’t be able to land on your horse’s body. The lightweight mesh blanket keeps flies from biting your horse’s chest, back, sides, and behind. If you protect your horse’s lower legs with mesh leg wraps, it will be hard for flies to find a place to bite your horse.
By doing these things, you can make a big difference in how many flies live on your property and bug your horses.
Barn fans
When there is a strong breeze, flies tend to be less active because the wind makes it hard for them to fly. So make your own breeze for controlling flies! Hanging fans from the ceiling over each stall and in the aisles prevents flies from the barn. In barn aisles, you can also use stand fans to control stable fly.
Proper Sanitation
There are multiple ways for fly control. You can’t ignore how clean your barn needs to be. To have a good barn where your horse can grow and live well, you need to clean and sanitize the whole place well.
One thing that makes horse flies breed is a dirty environment with a lot of manure and other organic waste. Flies like to hang out in dirty places; it’s up to you not to let them.
Make sure you clean up the feed and spills from every day and keep the area clean and sanitary. Sanitation isn’t just about keeping your space clean; you should also do your best to keep your horse clean. You can use horse shampoos to clean your horse.
Best Fly Spray Product: Controls Flies
Ultra Shield Ex Fly Spray
- OUR STRONGEST FORMULA: Kills and repels 70+ species of pests & bugs like flies, mosquitoes, ticks, gnats
- WEATHERPROOF: Protection up to 17 days with UltraBond Technology
- NO MIXING: Ready to use, water-based formula for horses, ponies, dogs, barns, or on premise
With Ultra Shield Ex, Absorbine raises the bar for insect protection. It is made of a versatile formula that kills and keeps away more than 70 kinds of bugs for up to 17 days with an insecticide formula that works even when you sweat. It can be sprayed directly on your horses.
This effective spray has sunscreens and coat conditioners with aloe and lanolin to keep your horse safe and their hair looking great. It can also be used on dogs.
Pyranha Wipe ‘N Spray
- 1 Gallon Bottle
- Effective On Flies, Mosquitoes, Gnats, Fleas, And Ticks
- Ready To Use Formula
You can spray directly this highly rated solution. It is made with pyrethrum, right on your horse. It’s a ready-to-use formula gives great protection to your horses. It contains lanolin to condition the coat, and gives your horse’s hair a beautiful high shine when it’s brushed out.
It kills and keeps away gnats and mosquitoes, as well as horn flies, deer flies, stable flies, and other types of insects. This horse fly spray protects well and only costs two ounces per head, so it is both cheap and effective.
Barn and Stable Fly Control Spray
- Premise and on-animal fly spray
- Controls flies, spiders, fleas, ticks & more
- For use on horses, beef & dairy cattle, goats, sheep, and swine, poultry and dogs
A concentrated premise and animal preparation. This versatile formula can be fogged, misted, used in automatic spray systems, back rubber machines, low-pressure spray systems, sprayed, dipped, or sponged on. Almost all pests on farms and in animals are killed for up to 4 weeks per application.
Absorbine Flys X Insecticide Spray
- OUR STRONGEST FORMULA: Kills and repels 70+ species of pests & bugs like flies, mosquitoes, ticks, gnats
- WEATHERPROOF: Protection up to 17 days with UltraBond Technology
- NO MIXING: Ready to use, water-based formula for horses, ponies, dogs, barns, or on premise
This horse fly spray is cheap. You should use it in different ways. Also and is ready to use right out of the bottle. It’s a contract killer that kills flies, mosquitoes, gnats, lice, and gnat larvae. It is safe for your horse, dog, and other animals. it has water composition, so it won’t leave an oily residue on your clothes.
ECOVET Horse Fly Spray Repellent/Insecticide
- Real alternative to toxic pesticides;active ingredients are food-grade fatty acids
- Extremely effective: Flies will not land on a horse thanks to the Ecovet barrier
- Safer for horses and for the humans applying the product
If you want to use a fly spray that is natural and doesn’t hurt animals, Enviro Equine has what you need. It uses a unique and effective mix of natural surfactants and essential oils in a solution with the right pH level.
This spray kills flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and other bugs for up to 8 hours. You, your horse, your dog, and even yourself are safe to use it. The added camelina oil gives the coat and skin the nutrients they need, making them shiny and soft.
