Helpful Hints for Insect Control:
"Spring has sprung: the grass has riz…” with apologies to poet Qgden nash, the grass and other things have “riz…” good things, like water levels in your farm pond, the pasture forage, temperature and the number of hours of day-light.
Not so good things include the insect population. Here in the southeast, we get them early in the year and wrestle with them through Halloween. Ticks make an early appearance so they can take advantage of the warm, moist climate and breed profusely. Horses are a favorite target for ticks, so checking for them is a needs to be a part of your grooming routine. The long sweeping tail that you admire on your horse is an inviting highway for the tick to travel upwards to the vulnerable end of the tailbone and the thin skin between your horses hind legs. You should also check the folds of the skin under the front legs as well as under the mane.
Biting flies will show up soon as well. Flies and mosquitoes are most active at sunrise and sunset.
You can try to control the fly population with bait, traps, spraying or fly predators. In the latter situation, you use nature to slow the population… but you should know that if your pasture as fire ant mounds, the wretched ants will destroy your fly predators: there’s another reason to rid your turnout pasture of fire ants!!! One more plan of attack for fly control is a food additive that prohibits the insect eggs from hatching or maturing (IGR means Insect Growth Regulator). For best results, all horses at the same barn should be fed the IGR additive.
Fly sheets are yet another option in the battle. The newer lines are impregnated with fly repellant and may be a good option for the fly sensitive horses.
Topical Sprays have been the “old stand by” for many years. They are much improved over the years but NO one spray is ‘best.” What works in Zebulon may not work in Cary… It’s trial and error. Oil based sprays last longer on the horses’ coats, but are more expensive. The bright sun breaks down many of the chemicals in a few hours and some are not sweat resistant sprays, so you need to consider your horses’ habits in picking a spray.
As always, we love to hear your success stories and comments!
