Feed Through, Fly Predators, Does ANY of it Work???

[Trevelyan96]

Honestly, I am wondering what luck anyone else out there has with fly control.

My horses start on Simplifly in March, they're also getting Smart Bug Off daily, and I bought fly predators this year as well. Stalls are cleaned daily, manure is stored away from the barn, composted and spread or givn away regularly. I only have 2 horses and there are none all that close to me. I even have an automatic sprayer in the barn!

But still, the F$&%$ stable flies are biting the crap out of the horses and us! Is there NOTHING that can get rid of these things? :mad::mad:

Is there anyone out there who has some success in the battle against the biters? I'm spending a fortune, but terrified that if I stop they'll be even worse!

[Buffyblue]

My BO uses the fly predators and there are almost no flies in the barn at all! I'm loving it!

[deltawave]

I use the Simplifly/Solitude type of feed-through, which is TOTALLY different from the Bug-Off type. Those are mostly herbal and diatomaceous earth, a little garlic, meant to keep flies from biting. The Solitude type keeps the flies from HATCHING. They work very well for me, but you really have to start feeding them a month or two before any flies usually appear. Around here, that means March, when there is still a foot of snow on the ground! :) I haven't unpacked the fly sheets and leg wraps since I started using the stuff. We have some flies for sure, but very, very manageable. I only use fly spray when I ride, and that's mostly for the bloodsuckers like deer flies, etc. that the feed-throughs don't work to control.

[BuddyRoo]

Hmmm....most people I know have really good luck with the fly predators when used correctly.

Could it be that you're not using enough or not getting them where they need to go?

[Equibrit]

A fan works just fine for my guys. They like to stand in front of the fans all day and go out at night. (no chemicals etc either)

[nkgooch66]

Do you have cows or other horses nearby? If so, that could be contributing to your problem if other neighboring farms are not treating for flies.

[GallopHer]

I've had GREAT success for my first summer with Simplifly. Are your dosages adequate for the sizes of your horses? Same with the predators. Are you putting out enough of the little buggers?

[MEP]

I have had great luck with Simplifly - I've used the feed-through for years. I will say, there was a tremendous difference when my neighbor w/horses moved away - they only had chickens for pest control and when they left, my fly count dropped by about a million percent (well, slight exaggeration :lol:)! The next nearest horse neighbors are at least a mile away.

However, we've got the nastiest biting gnats which Simplifly does not control. So, it's great for some flies, but doesn't work on everything.

[pAin't_Misbehavin']

I never had any luck with Simplifly. Vet said it's probably because there is so much wildlife around my farm - deers, possums, coons, more deer - plus free range dogs and cats. So flies have plenty of non-horse poo in which to hatch.:)

I've tried all kinds of sprays, too. Works for a little while, sweats off. The spot-on stuff worked for a couple of days. Supposed to last two weeks.

Haven't tried the predators, because I figured I'd have the same problem as I had with the feed-through.

I haven't found the first damn thing that actually works. I've tried things I thought were working - but I've found the size of our fly population is far more dependant on the time of year and amount of rainfall than by anything I can do to limit it.

[aiken4horses]

OK, don't know what I'm doing right, but...I don't have any flies - well, a few gnats in the evening, but not on the horses!

We were inundated with gnats in the spring, flies in May, Deer and Horse flies in June and now, suddenly, none. No stomping, no swishing. I've even stopped putting on masks except for the sunburnt nose ones.

I've got one neighbor with horses and we attacked the buggers with everything this year - could it be, we won? :cool:

[tabula rashah]

Honestly this year has been hard. I don't live very farm from you OP and I too, do the fly predators and a feed thru. I think the tons and tons of rain we've had earlier this year was the key to the fly undoing. That said- I just ordered a double dose of the fly predators the minute things started drying up and that seems to be working some.

[Ride2Dreams]

A small 8 horse barn cannot get an agreement for all horses to be on feed throughs. For this year and past years have used Fly Predators (which we had to randomly double up a dose as the cold weather and month of rain killed some of the buggers), feed through garlic for my horse and Duragard. Fly predators kills alot of the bigger buggers while the garlic keeps most of the gnats and flies not eaten by fly predators off of my horse. Duragard is for then the mosquitos come out. Living in a marshy/wet area the mosquitos and no see ums are the WORSE and need to be taken out.

[saxony]

I swear by the fly predators, but it does take awhile for them to really get the job done. I've been using them for about 6 years and we have very few flies. I would say it took at least 6 weeks initially for me to see a difference. The key is to get them going before the flies start to show up.

[subk]

Honestly, I am wondering what luck anyone else out there has with fly control.

My horses start on Simplifly in March, they're also getting Smart Bug Off daily, and I bought fly predators this year as well. ....

I even have an automatic sprayer in the barn!
Your automatic sprayer is probably killing your predators. The down side of predators is that any additional chemical defense kills the good one as well as the bad ones. So, save money by using one of the other.

[deltawave]

I'm pretty sure the Simplifly-type products are toxic to fly predators--they work by preventing development of larvae in the manure, so although their life cycles are not exactly the same, they are parasitic to the thing that the Simplifly is preventing from growing.

[Tiki]

Yup. The Simplifly is killing the fly predators. I tried Simplifly this year because DW raved about it and have had no luck with it at all. I used fly predators in the past and had no flies. I'm going back to it next year. I think it's too late to start now. You do have to get enough and follow the directions for disbursing them and do NOT feed feed-thru fly stuff.

[Trevelyan96]

Your automatic sprayer is probably killing your predators. The down side of predators is that any additional chemical defense kills the good one as well as the bad ones. So, save money by using one of the other.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, especially on the predators. Doesn't help that I live at the edge of a swamp, I guess. :(

The sprayer is in the barn, but I set the predators out at the manure pile, which is a good ways away from the barn. Their Simplify doses are coming in Smart Paks, along with the Bug Off. I've used it or Equitrol for the 10 years I've been here, always start it in March, but I'm thinking that it just doesn't work once the weather gets really hot.

Maybe I just need to put out more predators now that the weather is heating up consistently, and get some traps for the adults. Its the stable flies that seem to be the biggest problem around the barn, and in the shady spots. I pick up paddocs or drag weekly. Can you tell I'm fly-phobic! :eek: HATE flies! We had a very wet spring, and we're still getting cool nights, might have slowed the predators down. Or I'm wondering if we killed them off when we turned the compost heap and spread the old stuff on the resting pasture (although I put the predators on the 'new' stuff. :confused: Ah well, since everyone says they're having good luck with them, I'll try another order, I just put the 2nd one out 3 weeks ago, so maybe they just need a boost to get established.

[Trevelyan96]

Missed the posts about the Simplifly killing the predators. That does it, its never worked that well anyway, so I guess I'm going to go with the predators!

For those who are using them, where do you put them out? Am I a duma$$, or was I right to put them in the manue pile?

[Ltc4h]

I've used Equitrol for 7 yrs.
Have had 0 luck with any other feed thru, tried multiple.
Can honestly go out with an open coffee mug set it down and feed NO BUGS, not even gnats.
I feed Equitrol, hang fly relief bags and put the sticky fly tapes in my trailer for 3 days after coming home from shows. Just so I don't get contaminated.
I hate a bug !

[deltawave]

Sorry, Tiki. :sadsmile: I still use it, still happy with it. Sorry it didn't work for you. :uhoh: :)

[Tiki]

Oh, DW, I'm not blaming you. I'm glad that you've had good luck with it. I just haven't. Probably a different set-up. Obviously different climate. I'm glad I tried it, but next year I'm going back to the predators.

[suzyq]

Drought this year is working pretty well for me :)

[manyspots]

My paddocks are on the edge of a pond and we have wetland on the border of our property. I am using the full (up to 5 horse) amount of predators for my two guys and I LOVE THEM!!!!! We have virtually no flies. I also skipped the feed through and I only bug spray the horses for mosquitos and horse flies in certain areas so as not to kill the predators.

I heard somewhere that if you use extra predators (as in order for a larger farm) you will have better success. All in all, in love!!!!!!!!!

[mellsmom]

...but they don't kill everything. Also, replace your timed foggers with the breeth eaze fogger... it's a menthol, eucalyptus one and it really helps keep the gnats at bay. Now if I could afford to have them around the ring too, that would be excellent!

I have found nothing to deter the large horse flies.... other than certain stinging wasps we had at my parents farm that would attack and kill them. I don't seem to have them at my house... which I am sort of ok with.

[trubandloki]

Yeah, it sounds like you are spending lots of money to kill off part of your fly control. You sort of have to pick, predators OR feed thru and spray system.

I have had really good luck with the predators. I have almost no flies in my barn. We also built a biting fly box and that has caught tons of green heads and other nasty looking things.

We sprinkle our predators in the manure dumping spot (close to the barn), in the favorite manuring spots in the paddock and in the corner of the stalls.

Now if I could just find something to deal with the little gnats and the mosquitoes (oh the joys of living next to a pond) life would be pretty good.

[Sing Mia Song]

For those who are using them, where do you put them out? Am I a duma$$, or was I right to put them in the manue pile?

You want to put them near the manure pile, but not right on it. The heat from decomposition in the pile might be too much for your predators.

I usually put some within a couple feet of the manure pile, but also sprinkle them on indivdual manure piles and along fence lines. They will migrate where they need to go as long as you don't leave them in direct hot sun. I usually put mine out at dusk, when it's cooled off a bit and the birds aren't looking to snatch them up.

[mkevent]

I'm having the lowest fly population summer so far and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing right!!

I used to put the predators on the manure pile and didn't exactly go by the release them at dusk and dawn recommendation. This year I ordered the larger amount (6-10 horse for a 5-6 horse barn) and I'm releasing them behind the compost boxes at dusk and covering them with a little bit of compost/soil. I think that is making a huge difference.

I've also try to pick out the stalls (urine and manure) whenever I'm in the barn and rinse out the feed tubs daily. I guess if you think about it, flies are so tiny that it really doesn't take alot of manure/urine for them to have a feast!!

I've also had great success with the fly wraps on their legs and the Amigo Buzz off sheets(the ones with the insecticides in the material). Now we have had a cooler than normal summer so maybe that's why the flies don't seem as bad this year, either.

[Equibrit]

There is one thing I have always wondered about the fly predators - why do you have to keep buying them ? Do they not breed ?

[trubandloki]

There is one thing I have always wondered about the fly predators - why do you have to keep buying them ? Do they not breed ?

It explains this in the brochures/paper work.

The life cycle is short and yes they breed but you need to replenish them monthly to keep then up..... Or something like that.

[Diamondindykin]

Your automatic sprayer is probably killing your predators. The down side of predators is that any additional chemical defense kills the good one as well as the bad ones. So, save money by using one of the other.


I find this a very interesting statement because my horse trainer uses fly predators and swears by them. None of the horses at his place ever wear fly masks or fly spray. He hardly has any bugs at all. Now I live a couple miles at the most from him and I have a ton of bugs. My neighbor also swears by fly predators but she has fly masks on her horses from sun up till dusk, they are dowsed in fly spray and she has a sprayer in the barn. I have not been willing to try them because I am not convinced because of my neighbors continued fly problem while still using them. I have to wonder now if the reason that my trainers barn is bug free and my neighbors is not is because she is killing them with fly spray both on the horses and in the barn sprayer?!?!

Does the literature for fly predators say anything about using sprays around them?

[trubandloki]

Yes, the literature tells you about not using pesticides around them.


I still use fly masks on my horses because the predators do not take care of everything.

Copy and paste from one of the web sites:

Keep pesticide sprays away from Fly Predators They are much more sensitive to pesticides than pest files. If you have to spray a horse do it away from any fly breeding area; i.e. not in the stall. If you use a residual spray apply it only to pest fly resting areas (a sunny wall, ceiling rafters) avoiding pest fly reproduction areas (manure, rotting vegetation). Fly Predators will only be found in the reproduction areas.

Came from here:

http://www.spalding-labs.com/FlyControlInstructions.aspx

[Diamondindykin]

Yes, the literature tells you about not using pesticides around them.


I still use fly masks on my horses because the predators do not take care of everything.

Copy and paste from one of the web sites:

Keep pesticide sprays away from Fly Predators They are much more sensitive to pesticides than pest files. If you have to spray a horse do it away from any fly breeding area; i.e. not in the stall. If you use a residual spray apply it only to pest fly resting areas (a sunny wall, ceiling rafters) avoiding pest fly reproduction areas (manure, rotting vegetation). Fly Predators will only be found in the reproduction areas.

Came from here:

http://www.spalding-labs.com/FlyControlInstructions.aspx

Thanks for the info!! I think that I now know why my neighbors isn't working so well. She did talk another neighbor into trying them so I will give her a heads up about spraying around them.