As the weather begins to warm up, pesky insects start to make an appearance. There’s no doubt that flies are an extreme nuisance for horses, not to mention their owners. In addition to being irritating, they can also pose health risks to your horse by spreading bacterial infections, causing diseases like equine infectious anemia, and leading to painful sores on your horse’s legs.
Here are some handy tips for eliminating flies from your horse barn!
Manage Manure
The most important way of controlling flies is proper manure disposal. Stable flies, the most annoying of all the biting flies that bother horses, breed in manure. Houseflies also prefer manure for reproduction. The best way to keep these fly numbers down is to remove manure from your horse’s stall or paddock frequently. Barn aisles, turnout areas, and riding arenas should also be cleaned. Clean at least once a day, or more often if you can.
Control Moisture
Flies love moisture and seek out wet areas to breed. Search your property for leaks from faucets, sprinklers, pipes, and look for areas where rainwater gathers. If your horse has a favorite spot in his stall or paddock to urinate, flies are most likely laying eggs there. Put down moisture-absorbing materials to help soak up the urine. In box stalls, keep urine to a minimum with frequent cleanings and use highly absorbent bedding.
Install Traps
The simplest type of fly trap uses a sticky surface to capture flies. The flies are drawn to the color—usually orange or yellow—and land on it. The glue-covered surface sticks to their feet, keeping them from flying away. Other traps use bait to lure the fly inside. Some traps have water inside, and the flies drown because they can’t escape. Others trap them inside the container, where they die due to a lack of food and water.
Sticky fly traps can be hung anywhere flies congregate but should be safely out of reach of curious horses. Baited traps should be placed far from stalls since they will initially attract more flies to the area before the insects become trapped.
Now that you know how to keep your horse barn free of flies, it’s time to buy one! If you’re in the market for a horse barn, Deer Creek Structures can help. We offer secure, high-quality, Texas-built barns and run-in sheds.
Call us today at (254)546-2276 to get a quote on your custom-built horse barn!