allergy to midges

[wickedwilfred]

We have a yearling colt who is reacting badly to the midges now appearing morning and evening. Not only rubbing his mane and tail, but he is also distressed by them and hides in his field shelter. I don’t know whether to just let him tough it out and get used to them, or try to find a treatment. Anxious not to end up with sweet-itch, so far I have just rubbed the sore areas with a Dettol/Baby Oil mix, which is effective but only lasts about a day. Iwondered if there was a more permanent treatment, say once a week, anyone could recommend.

 

[usaequestrian]

I think you might want to call the vet and ask for advice, can you put a fan near him? Midges can't hold on tight if there is a fan nearby.

 

[PurBee]

We have midges, serious amounts - theyve not erupted their first hatching swarm just yet where i am but i can share some tactics i use, which may help.

When my mare first came here she hadnt been bitten by midges before - her initial reaction to bites was shocking as she developed large hives all over her head/neck/chest mainly. However, within 24hrs they had reduced as quickly as they had appeared and her body’s immune system seemed to cope.
After that initial bad reaction she never had raised bite lumps or hives due to lots of midges biting her. As you know when they are swarming its impossible to escape them and being bitten.
My gelding is the same, initial reaction then immunity developed.

So if your youngster is reacting and this is his first exposure to midges, he *should* develop his own immunity pretty soon.

Going into the shelter is what mine do if the midges are clouding the area. Midges dont seem to fly into very dark spaces/rooms/sheds….they prefer the damp shade and hate the drying hot sun, yet they wont swarm inside a dark shelter.
Its ironic how they will swarm at the barn double doors, sensing the horses inside yet dont move INTO the depths of the barn to bite them. Their shelter is really quite dark.
My horses have 24/7 access to a shelter due to this biting insects factor, as horseflies are not so keen either to fly into dark shelters.

Midges hate breezy airy light sunny places, due to sunlight or wind they cant swarm, except very still, no wind damp mornings and evenings. We had high overgrown hedges, muddy tracks, long grass..it was a midge haven. We put hardcore tracks down to get rid of a lot of mud. We chopped down tall shading bushes. We opened out the horse yard area to allow more breeze/reduce shade areas.
We stack supplies on pallets in locations that wont create shade/moisture.

Keep grazing short. Midges will hang out in the grass, for moisture, to survive. During worst midge days/times try to have the horses on a concrete yard or on the shortest grazing area.

Of course, im not familiar with your set-up but just telling you these practical aspects of organising a yard to help the area be harder for biting insects to thrive.
Since making changes to having less mud, hardcore, smaller bushes, better drainage, increasing breeze and light to the yard, the swarms for the past 2 yrs have been very much minimised. Its amazing the change in midge numbers we suffer with now. Also our own house area is vastly improved, whereas before literally midges covered our windows and all we could see were black lines moving on the windows. Horror movie type scenario!

Fly repellants are worth trying. They all claim to help deter midges, but rarely is it a wonder spray. Ive never found anything that prevents midges or horseflies longterm… Usually just 12hrs protection.
I dont like using chemical repellants as the mare reacted very badly with hives to a spray once, so im wary, and rely on diluted essential oils sprays. I’d be wary of using on a yearling any strong chemical repellents personally, as theyre still growing/ developing. Whats sprayed on gets absorbed to some extent through the skin, so patch test anything you choose to use before spraying all over, just to be sure of no reaction.

Face/ears/neck and between back legs/belly are all midge biting favourite spots, so thats where i focus my spray efforts.

If you have yours at home and its a nightmare midge scenario of severe swarming, id recommend stabling closed for the dawn/dusk swarm hour.
If that not possible…light a fire in a metal bucket with holes drilled in the side, get a few coals red, then plonk a damp block of peat/wood on the hot coal. This produces a stream of smoke, which fills the higher air and confuses the midges, helping to disperse them from an area theyre really attacking. Obviously keep the line of smoke away from where the horses are.
I’ve often been seen spinning a bucket of fire erupting clouds of smoke about my place…trying to deter a midge swarm from coming close to the horses. I’ve often kept a smoke bucket in place for hours creating a wall of smoke between the damp forest where the midges breed and hatch from, and the horse yard. Obviously keep the bucket and smoke well away from the horses and their reach.

Horses usually get used to midges, and mine dont ever have any lumps/bumps erupt due to midge bites…mozzie and horsefly bites they do, but no longer to midges. They will run and hide and itch due to first exposure to midge saliva, but usually quickly their immune system adjusts to the torment and they also tend to mentally accept/get used to them.

As a FYI, my black mare attracts midges much more than the grey gelding.. she always has loads more biting her than him. What colour is your colt? You could try a very light coloured thin fly sheet on him during worst swarms/days of midges.

 

[tristar]

protect the eyes, fly fringe on the headcollar, and spray it every day

 

[wickedwilfred]

Thank you for sharing all that information. He is a dark bay Thoroughbred and his field companion who is mid-bay shows no signs of suffering in the same way, so it’s just him. He started by rubbing the top of his tail and mane and of course, this made it sore and all the more attractive to the midges. I too don’t like to use chemical repellents and I find the combination of 2 parts brown Dettol (the old smelly sort) to 8 parts baby oil very effective, as midges and flies hate the smell of Dettol and the oil helps it to stick around longer. In view of his age, I don’t like to put him in a fly sheet because he or his mate would probably rip it off and there is a risk of getting tangled up in it.

 

[wickedwilfred]

The other good tip I have learned for control of horse flies I picked up on the internet. We inherited an awful lot when we moved to this farm and they were well established. For the past 6 years we have put out horse fly traps very early in spring, just when the first flies start to emerge (that way you catch the breeding flies and wasps), and each year thenumbers have reduced until they are quite a rare sighting. We make these traps cheaply, using old 2 litre plastic water bottles, (the type with a neck), cut off the widest part above the neck and invert the top inside the bottle, so making a funnel for the flies to go into. Tie a hanging string round the neck and fill one third of the bottle with a mixture of vinegar, sugar and water - the vinegar is important as it’s the acetic acide that attracts the flies and wasps. - hang them round the stables and fields and empty about once a month and refill. We usually have about 10 on the go and you can easily work out the hotspots as the bottles will be full.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Our gelding developed sweet itch last year for the first time - it's weird because he's the only horse out of 14 to be affected. It didn't come on until half way through the summer and then he suddenly started itching like crazy along his mane, on his ears and at the base of his tail. He's out 24/7 and there's only natural shelter in the field so we couldn't keep him in at dusk which is supposed to help, however there's almost always a breeze/wind as the fields are quite high on a hill. We eventually got it under control by applying weekly Deosect (smells like paintstripper but is effective), washing his mane and tail weekly with oatmeal shampoo, keeping a fly mask on with ears, putting him in a sweet itch hood. He hated the hood and did his very best Houdini impression - he's the field boss and all his subordinates would help him pull it off and then groom him vigourously which didn't help .. We also hogged him to enable us to treat the sore bits with steroid cream.

This year we're trying the ringworm injection (Insol) and I'm getting a sweet itch rug which looks a bit less clammy than the hood so I'm hoping he'll tolerate it better and keeping on with the deosect, weekly shampoos, fly mask etc - and keeping my fingers very firmly crossed that he won't be as badly affected this year

 

[wickedwilfred]

I will try the Deosect as haven’t heard of that before. I think the secret is to treat it before it needs treating, as once the skin is sore it attracts the midges more.