Horse flies are bad but camel flies are a horror! Help?

[millreef]

I'm in Casablanca and we suddenly entered Spring with temperatures going from low teens last week to 26 today. The flies are bad and both mine and my daughters horses suffer. I made a concoction of fly spray using citronella, dettol and eucalyptus oils but the large biting flies are awful. However, nothing quite matches the disgusting camel flies that fly up around their bum and annoy the bejesus out of the horses. Nothing seems to work. The normal stable flies look like regular files but the beggers bite and last summer my daughters horse kicked his shoe off after one of the camel flies went close to his bottom. Any suggestions for homemade remedies?

 

[PurBee]

Here’s a link to a home made oil-based spray recipe - it would sit on their coat longer than most vinegar/water based homemade recipes (which ive also tried and they last just an hour)

Im going to try making this oil-based recipe this year and compare the difference as we usually get a fair number of horse flies here.

Homemade Fly Repellant Spray for Livestock

Homemade fly repellant spray for livestock is easy to make and can make your animals a little more comfortable. This is safe and effective!

theeverydayfarmhouse.com

 

[Denali]

Can you get deo-lotion? That’s my go to for horrible flies like that. I’ve also found it helpful to rotate my fly spray every year. My advice is from the US so I’m sorry it’s not that helpful.

 

[Suby2]

We have crab flies in the New Forest which sound similar. Not a home made recipe but I have found Biteback Superfly which comes in a gel or spray the most effective.

 

[rextherobber]

We have crab flies in the New Forest which sound similar. Not a home made recipe but I have found Biteback Superfly which comes in a gel or spray the most effective.

We had crab flies for the first time ever in West Sussex last year, they are truly vile. Thanks for the recommendation, I usually find Phaser the best against ordinary horse flies, but it wasn't effect with crab flies at all. I wonder if, with warmer weather predicted to become the norm, we will end up with crab flies everywhere in the UK, and possibly horrors like camel fly appearing here in the South too...

 

[Jellymoon]

Again, not homemade, but we have bad biting flies round us and I’ve found slathering nettex sweet itch cream all over them works. Seems to stop the horseflies wanting to land on them, maybe because they don’t like a sticky landing, so am wondering if you can make a concoction using a sticky cream as a base, mix your smelly stuff into some greasy cream (sudocrem with oil mixed so it spreads on better??) and just plaster it on, will look messy but who cares!
Once, when I ran out of nettex (and is is vv expensive) I mixed some Hot Horse spray into some sudocrem and put it under their bellies where they were getting bitten, and I’m pretty sure it worked as well.
Might try that myself this year…