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Fly Control On The Farm

Thanks everyone for your comments.  I’m hoping the babies my two hens are trying to hatch will arrive this week.  In preparation for the big event, we’ve decided to set up two separate birthing rooms; one for the turkey hen and one for the Cochin chicken.  Mountain Man, because he loves me (not so much the birds) is busy building the necessary enclosures.

I’ll let you know as soon as something happens. In the meantime, I thought I’d give you some more insight into caring for a farm.

It’s that time of year when flies reappear and the horses despise them. Some horses actually have allergic skin reactions to fly bites and even if they don’t, flies drive the animals crazy.

But what to do? I tried fly masks but the horses spend the day grabbing them off one another. I can’t use pesticides because we have organic land nor would I want to be spreading harmful chemicals.

The addition of guineas has been wonderful. They are born to eat bugs and do a fantastic job but they can’t handle all of them. I could get more but they are noisy birds and Mountain Man says 15 is enough. But even without more guineas, I think I’ve won the war on flies.

Several years ago, I read about a product called “Fly Predators” which sounded way too good to be true. Fly predators are insects the size of a speck whose sole purpose in life is to devour fly larvae before it can be established. I decided to try them about three years ago. Can’t say they did much that first year but I learned I didn’t start early enough in the season and once fly colonies are established, they are hard to eradicate. Now, when the snow melts, I start using fly predators.

I order 20,000 of the little bugs and they arrive looking like this

They are packed in sawdust, unhatched and you wait until you see about 15 of the little critters walking around.

Then, if you have a pile of manure, you just drop the little guys on and that’s that. We don’t have manure piles in the summer because the horses are running free on many acres so I just head off in search of poop piles always accompanied by someone.

Then, just sprinkle on fresh poop and the predators go to work and no more flies.

They also work on grass clippings and can be spread on any area that might produce flies. I think they are great but they won’t work if you live close to another farm or in more populated area unless your neighbors are using them as well.

I’m still learning every day. Do you control your flies? If so, what do you use?