Bot Flies

[Steerpike]

The bot flies were horrendous here last year so trying to think ahead this year, does anyone know if there is anything(apart from boots) that I can put on my horses legs to help stop bot flies laying their eggs?

 

[Red-1]

Yes! There is a product from Barrier that repels them. I find it good for mites too.

 

[Steerpike]

Brilliant, thank you!

 

[Red-1]

Barrier Parasite Repel 5038103115135 | eBay

 

[Lyle]

I read that the female bot fly recognizes horses by sight, which makes barrier sprays non/less effective. Has anyone tried the zebra striped horse rugs?

 

[Steerpike]

I think they work for horse flies, I had zebra fly rugs on some of my horses, they still got bit eggs but less horse flies

 

[Heyhay1984]

I've been lurking on here for literally years, and as of the weekend don't actually have any horses for the first time in 20 years, but I just HAD to reply to this post.

I did my dissertation nearly 20 years ago on where and why bot flies choose to lay their eggs, my research and the little bit of existing literature suggested they go for darker coloured legs from preference. Height, age and sex of the horse had a little bit of an effect but leg colour was the main thing. Picking off and counting eggs from 10 horses every day for a month was soo much fun...

Not much you can do about that I guess but maybe eventing grease on lower legs might be worth experimenting with?

 

[Steerpike]

Funny you should say that, there was more eggs on my chestnut/bay horses than on my greys!

 

[SpotsandBays]

Hoping to not jinx myself here but I haven’t seen a bot fly/eggs in many years. Used to find eggs all the time!

 

[HashRouge]

Barrier Parasite Repel 5038103115135 | eBay

How effective do you find that Red? We get ticks where we are as lots of deer, and last summer I kept finding lots of tiny ones on my old Arabs legs. She then had an awful reaction to them, very similar to mud rash, that took ages to heal. I'd been trying to keep them at bay with natural products and my tick removal tool, but it didn't seem hugely effective. This year I've gone the opposite route and have bought the nasty chemical stuff - we've got frontline spray and Absorbine Ultrashield, even though I know it's full of nasty chemicals. I just can't risk her having the same skin reaction again, it took so long for her to heal last year. But I'd love to find something a bit more natural if I can!

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

How effective do you find that Red? We get ticks where we are as lots of deer, and last summer I kept finding lots of tiny ones on my old Arabs legs. She then had an awful reaction to them, very similar to mud rash, that took ages to heal. I'd been trying to keep them at bay with natural products and my tick removal tool, but it didn't seem hugely effective. This year I've gone the opposite route and have bought the nasty chemical stuff - we've got frontline spray and Absorbine Ultrashield, even though I know it's full of nasty chemicals. I just can't risk her having the same skin reaction again, it took so long for her to heal last year. But I'd love to find something a bit more natural if I can!

I am happy to see how vigilant you are. I very nearly lost my horse to Lymes and eventually had to retire her due to long-term issues from it. I never saw a single tick on her, but obviously at some point there must have been.

I spray both her and the donkeys with chemicals every day through the spring and summer, and search every inch of them every few days. I never want to see another one go through the disease, the treatment and the long-term side effects.

Watching this with interest as I would also much prefer to use a more natural deterrent.

 

[Steerpike]

Hoping to not jinx myself here but I haven’t seen a bot fly/eggs in many years. Used to find eggs all the time!

I hadn't seen any for years, then we moved to Wales last year and the poor horses were covered in them, I seemed to spend most of my day scraping the nasty things off!

 

[Red-1]

How effective do you find that Red? We get ticks where we are as lots of deer, and last summer I kept finding lots of tiny ones on my old Arabs legs. She then had an awful reaction to them, very similar to mud rash, that took ages to heal. I'd been trying to keep them at bay with natural products and my tick removal tool, but it didn't seem hugely effective. This year I've gone the opposite route and have bought the nasty chemical stuff - we've got frontline spray and Absorbine Ultrashield, even though I know it's full of nasty chemicals. I just can't risk her having the same skin reaction again, it took so long for her to heal last year. But I'd love to find something a bit more natural if I can!

It didn't go down to zero but it was an improvement. It became a scrapeable amount as opposed to a nightmare!

 

[Carrottom]

I'm also in Wales and the bot flies were much worse than usual last year. One of mine is driven mad by them and the only thing that I found deterred them was the Power Phazer spray. I was spraying it all over his fly rug as well as down his legs.