Is fly repellent the best way to keep your horse fly-free?

Using a fly repellent is certainly one way. But here are the five most common ways of controlling flies at horse barns.

1. Manure control. You can use as much fly repellent as you want, but let's face it--manure piles are fly heaven. They will travel for miles to settle and breed in your manure pile. Manure piles are also fire threats. Manure generates heat as it decomposes, and temperatures in the interior of the pile can rise high enough to trigger spontaneous combustion. Once it is burning, it can be extremely difficult to put out, and the fumes from the fire can be really foul. If possible, have manure hauled off your property. Horse manure makes great fertilizer for plants. Farmers usually are more than happy to collect and transport manure from your horse barn to their farms--unless it also contains wood shavings, which cause soil to be acidic and hamper plant growth. (Hog farmers will usually take manure with wood shavings.) Local nurseries may also be interested.

2. Fly predators. Better than fly-repellent, this is sometimes called bio-control. Tiny non-stinging wasps feed on fly larvae which greatly reduces the number of flies that successfully hatch on your property. Companies that sell them will ship them to you on monthly basis during fly season. All you have to do is open the bag and dump the contents on a small manure pile at dusk. (The predators will do the rest are nocturnal.) A small muck bucket containing manure is usually enough to keep the predators doing their job.

3. Spray systems. You can purchase spray systems that automatically spray fly repellent into barn aisles to control flies. Some people worry about horses, humans, dogs, and cats breathing insecticides on a regular basis.

4. Feed-through fly repellent. You can also buy feed supplements that contain an insect growth regulator which prevents the development of house flies and stable flies in the manure of treated horses. Some people worry about the safety of the products, particularly given the warning they carry against feeding the supplement to animals meant for slaughter (meaning they don't want humans consuming it.) There are also natural products on the market that contain plain old garlic as their fly-fighting ingredient.

5. Spray fly repellent. There are a number of products on the market which can be sprayed directly onto your horse to repel flies. Again, some people worry about the toxicity of some of these sprays, but there are non-toxic alternatives. If you’re looking for an herbal alternative to fly spray, you may be in luck. After 15 years of testing 4,000 compounds, Jerry Butler, PhD, a medical and veterinary entomologist with the Entomology and Nematology Department at the University of Florida, has identified a natural plant extract that rivals DEET and pyrethroids in its effectiveness against many species of insects. The compound is called geraniol. It is derived from lemongrass, an herb most famously used in Thai food. It is marketed under the brand Pyranha Zero-Bite Natural Insect Repellent™. Return to Horse Care from fly repellent