Poor Harvey has been struggling with face flies to the point we have been extremely worried for him!
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| Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner |
I have been studying Face Flies and their life cycle! What I learned surprised me!
I didn't know that they need the secretions from the nose and eyes to produce their eggs! Yuck!
Once they have the secretions, they lay their eggs in fresh manure and the cycle begins to create more of them! The manure is less than an hour old when they lay their eggs in it! I thought that was interesting! Gross, but interesting!
The other horses are doing fine, but Harvey has been frantic! Tossing his head violently!
After researching Face Flies I think that they are going up into his nose! We have been cleaning all of the horse's eyes with Witchhazel and Aloe Vera, once or twice a day, especially if they have tears rolling down their cheeks! It has to be incredibly irritating!
They were also all wearing fly masks until, Harvey couldn't handle a mask anymore! Based on his violent head tossing, we took his mask off!
I have started wiping Harvey's nose with the Witchhazel now, too! This seems to be helping with calming him down! We also bought permythion roll on fly repellent! (It makes me sick, so we are very careful with it!). It does seem to be helping to keep the flies at bay! At least for a little while!
We bought diachotomous earth to sprinkle on the manure piles, it's supposed to kill the flies and their other life stages! We are sprinkling it several times a day, as we pick the piles up! I used to do this all the time, but I couldn't find it in the large bag, which is more affordable!
Dan, bought a permytheon spray, too! That hasn't seemed to work at all to kill these flies! It too, makes me sick, so I wear a face mask when I'm in the barn the first 24 hours!
Today, we hung a larger fan and a smaller fan, over Harvey's run-in shelter! This gives Harvey a lot more wind to keep the flies at bay!
Hopefully, this will allow him some peace!
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| Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner |
We spray everyone twice a day with a natural, essential oils fly spray. Sometimes we spray them 3 times!
I have sticky traps and hanging outside the barn, the traps that cause other types of flies to drown! Not Face Flies, though, as they aren't attracted to this type of fly trap! Errr!
Are we the only ones having a huge face fly problem this Errr! I don't think so!
The only thing I can think of that is different this year is that we are experiencing a drought this year! Could the lack of rain allow more flues to hatch? I don't know!
I haven't bought fly predators in several years, but I don't think they help with Face Flies! I have an email going out to them today, to make sure! I want to cover all our bases! If they do take care of Face Flies, I will order them again!
It's very hard to watch Harvey struggle!
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| Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner |
I will continue to learn about and brainstorm ideas to battle these face flies, so our horses can feel calm!
Have you had a problem, you have had to brainstorm a solution for?
What was the outcome?
Manifest a magical day!
With gratitude!
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