Help Your Horse Survive the Winged Pests of Summer

trigger an allergic reaction in a horse causing hives or breathing problems. The constant aggravation of flies can cause horses to become stressed interrupt grazing lose weight and in dairy cattle can reduce milk output.
Battling the Bugs
Pest management is essential starting with hygiene in and around the barn. According to an online report Fly Control around Horses by Dr. Roger Moon and Betsy Gilkerson Wieland University of Minnesota flies will lay 50150 eggs every few days in moist organic debris including manure old hay around feeders straw or soiled bedding. Maggots hatch from the eggs and feed on the bacteria growing in the debris. They mature into pupae and then into winged adults. The entire life cycle can be completed in just two weeks and the adult fly will live one to three weeks depending on weather. Flies need a moisture range of 35 to 70 percent for larval development and for every fly you see half a dozen are in the development stage.
Manure as well as rotting hay or straw should be removed and composted well away at least 500 metres from where animals are housed or contained. Use an aerobic composting system that generates heat a system that does not get hot enough is a breeding ground for flies.
The use of fly predators also offers effective natural fly control. These are tiny parasitic wasps that do not bite or sting. They live their entire life cycle on or near manure where the fly pupa are found and destroy the next generation of flies in that pupa stage. They target stable flies and house flies and can reduce fly populations by up to 90 percent
Use products that reduce manure odours in the stalls and aid in keeping the floors dry. Keep the grass cut around the barn flies will look for resting areas out of direct sunlight and long grass is ideal. By extension remove all rotting leaves grass cuttings decaying fruit on the ground windfall apples or wasted berries in season all of which become places where eggs will be laid.
Some flies and mosquitoes seek standing water in which to lay eggs. Remove or overturn any container that will collect rainwater fix leaky waterers that puddle on the ground and fix dribbling taps. Keep feed tubs and water buckets scrubbed to remove algae and scour out the water trough regularly. Remove empty flower pots and tires where rain