Flies and ticks in France

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Follysmum

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Are these as bad as some people say. I have a friend that has set her mind on France ( Dordogne area) but someone has told her that the flies and ticks are horrendous and she shouldn’t take her horses with her. Would be interested to hear from anyone with any experience.
 
French flies are larger than in the UK, and most of the fly sprays are woefully inadequate. We use fly masks and sheets for turnout protection and opt to ride either before 10.00 or after 18.00.Lots of people shower their horses every day too.
I am further south than the Dordogne and am perfectly comfortable with the horses being here. If I were your friend, I'd bring the horses.
Spain, as I have said before in threads on the Overseas board, is where horses can really suffer horribly from flies. Mine will never go back there.
 
Hi I live in North Dordogne and have never had a problem with ticks. Flies are worse but mine have the option to come into an open barn and a fly mask and citronella spray does the trick. However I tend not to ride much in the summer months as its usually too hot.
 
Thankyou everyone that has replied. After serious thinking and researching friend has decided not to go to France fro now due to the heat we have had recently she has decided it’s not really fair on her 2 elderly horses, they haven’t coped too well here in the heat and flies so she’s putting the move on hold for now.
 
I'm updating this as just after Xmas my 15 month old Labrador almost died from piroplasmosis: a parasite carried by tics, despite always wearing a flea and tic collar. He also never runs in long grass. Ok,so a rogue tic got him but at Xmas?.
Now I keep reading of such cases in horses. The further west you go, the more common it is. The UK tics do not have this parasite so the Wiki article is only available in French.
 
sunnyone said:
I'm updating this as just after Xmas my 15 month old Labrador almost died from piroplasmosis: a parasite carried by tics, despite always wearing a flea and tic collar. He also never runs in long grass. Ok,so a rogue tic got him but at Xmas?.
Now I keep reading of such cases in horses. The further west you go, the more common it is. The UK tics do not have this parasite so the Wiki article is only available in French.
Click to expand...

The Wikipedia article in French is entitled "Babésiose" that doesn't go into much detail about equine piroplasmosis; there is a corresponding article in English unsurprisingly entitled "Babesiosis". There are plenty of articles about equine piroplasmosis elsewhere, though.
 
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