Flies cause extreme irritation to horses, especially in the summer months. Fly repellents will help keep the flies at bay and away from your horses. Some people choose to make homemade fly repellent, but repellent can also be bought in pet stores.
- Homemade Fly Repellent. Most homemade fly repellents can be made from white wine vinegar, eucalyptus, tea-tree or lavender. The most effective repellents are garlic-based. These repellents work very well but do not smell very good. Some people add garlic salt to their horses' feed. This creates natural oils in the horses that repel flies. Adding vinegar to your horses' water will raise the pH in their blood and will naturally repel flies. I find that homemade fly repellents work better than store bought repellents, though they both do an excellent job.
- Store Bought Fly Repellent. There are a few different kids of repellents you can buy for your horses from stores. These repellent methods consist of wipes, lotions and sprays. The wipe-on method is a liquid based substance that is wiped onto your horse. This works great for repelling flies and kills any who make contact. Be sure to brush your horse before applying. When using the lotion method, apply the lotion around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose. This will keep the flies away from these areas. When using the spray method, spray on and around your hourse as needed.
A large number of pests and insects are irritating to your horses. Some of these insects include mosquitoes, biting flies and stable flies. Stable flies feed off of blood from warm-blooded animals and cause much irritation to your horses when bitten. These flies resemble house flies, but are much larger. Keeping these flies at bay from your horses is best because they also bite and irritate humans.
I own a few horses and flies are generally annoying pests in the summer. I prefer to use homemade fly repellent consisting of lavender, eucalyptus and water. This repellent seems to work great and does not have a malicious odor. You can purchase these scented oils from health food stores. I purchase mine at Good Earth. I find that using a combination of homemade spray and garlic salt on the horses' feed works very effectively. A number of these methods will work, some more than others. Be sure to use some sort of fly repellent, as flies are extremely irritating to your horses. Your horses will be much happier when they are fly free.
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