Pest Management and Fly Sprays

A local friend told me one his horses was getting eaten up by flies and when he used a fly spray on the horse, the horse would break out into black bumps and irratate the skin into a sore. He asked me what else he could do.

I told him that proper pest management was a large part of the solution. Keeping his stalls and corrals clean of manure. If he dumps the manure in a central point, then he could possible spray for pests on the manure pile a couple times a week. Using fly traps such as the sticky fly tape or fly trap bottles is also a good idea; another solution may be possibly using "fly predators" which I have not yet tried, but will in the short future - these are little horse friendly bugs that eat flies.

As far as fly spray is concerned I too have a horse who has an allergic reaction to fly sprays with permethrins. I have tried various strength solutions of vinegar and water and have found out they don't work and it's hard to take the smell.

I have settled on a commercial product called "Marigold Spray" which works pretty well and smells decent. I use a permethrin based Pyranha on my other horses and that works well. Hope the Marigold Spray works for his horse.