# Flies....what do you do?



## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Its April and all the flies are already out! I rake the barn every morning after I have the milk chilling, bag up everything and haul it out of the pens. I removed all bedding (its been hot and dry here), and put down a new 3ft thick sand floor on to of the dirt to make raking up messes easier (and the girls like the cool sand on hot days). I don't squirt milk on the ground and I scrub my stands down 3 times per week and STILL the flies were bad this evening at milking time! 

Shaved everyone down already so my hairy alpines aren't cooking in their wool coats, but now the flies are driving them nuts.  This evening milking was a game of dodge the hoof because the flies were harassing the girls so bad.

Anyone have a list of products I can pick up at feed stores/TSC (don't want to wait for shipping) for the barn and perhaps something topical I can use on the girls?

Also, anyone have a product recomendation that does what Sweet PDZ says it does? It didn't seem effective to me, not even when I tried it in deep bedding over the winter. I want something I can sprinkle on wet spots in the barn after I rake to hopefully keep odors down..


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

I have noticed that I have more flies than I have ever had on my goats before and I am wondering why also :really

I have bottles of regular horse fly spray (that I buy on sale) hanging on the fences by the gates already. When it gets real hot tho,I take them down and just tote a bottle when I go out ,I have already clipped my does and the flies are back .


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

There is some kind of fly bait that works really well, but I don't think TSC has it. If you search here, you can find the name. From what I've read on here, others seem to really like it. I don't think it worked that well for me, but maybe I didn't use it right.

I use a fan, set on low, that blows towards the udder and me when I'm milking. It at least keeps the flies away so that I can milk without all the fuss.


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

We use the fly predators, we have used them for years and have a lot less flies. I dont like Sweet PDZ, it doesnt work well at all. I use lime, it keeps the smell down & helps keep the floors dry. I put shavings on top and clean the pee spots daily and strip the stalls once a week.


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## carlidoe (Jul 30, 2010)

I just ordered fly predators- haven't gotten them yet but I'm hopeful they will work. I just keep everything raked out and hauled off. I do have something that I think works some, or it could be my imagination  But after I've raked out the pens I like to spray "Barn & Stable, No More Odor" on the areas that have the most urine. This stuff says it consumes urea (food source for flies) in animal urine so the flies have nothing to live off of. I ordered it from Hoeggers.


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## Lynn_Theesfeld (Feb 21, 2010)

Quick Bait - not spelled the same on the product, but it works like a charm!!!


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## prairiegirl01 (Jun 2, 2008)

I use fly predators, hanging fly tape all over the place and baited traps outside the barn and anywhere else I have livestock, like the chicken coop. This year the chickens are going to be moved so they have access to the manure pile/compost and can help with fly larvae. I use deep straw bedding and only clean twice a year (Minnesota), I also use goldfish in my horse watering trough so I don't breed mosquitoes. I use a combination 50% olive oil/50% tea tree oil spray inside ears (horse and goat) to keep gnats at bay--works great.

You can't use fly sprays near where you have predators--you will kill them. I use horse fly spray very lightly on goat ankles so there's no stomping when I am milking and only if the flies are bad. And I spray myself with a human product before I milk.

The fly predators make all the difference.

I have a smell product that I use sometimes besides lime, I think it's called Stall Fresh. Here's a link. My feed store carries it. http://www.amsanimalhealth.com/stallfresh.htm

Works like a charm. The ammonia smell attracts biting flies....

Good luck!

Chris


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

I use that Quick Bait too


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

where can I order fly predators?


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## seraphsprings (Mar 28, 2011)

Diatomaceous earth. Just dust your goats with that stuff. It helps with our animals anyways. A garden store maybe, I know you can get it off the internet, but since you don't want to order it, I would try a garden store. And it's natural.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thanks so much!

Don't have power in the barn...so I can't use a fan....hopefully by next year we'll have fencing finished and I can convert my old rabbit room into my milk room, so I have concrete floors and electricity...but in the meantime, I'll have to make do with what I have.

Tried Fly Predators last year in the rabbit room with no noticeable difference, so I'm leary of investing in them again....Wrote down all products listed though and will hit the feed stores to see what I can find.

These flies I'm seeing now look like small house flies but they BITE!


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## cheesemoose (Jun 23, 2010)

I miss the pass through I used to use with my horse really did a number on on the flies.


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## prairiegirl01 (Jun 2, 2008)

Spalding Labs sells the fly predators. One issue with them is that if your neighbors are breeding flies then you're fighting a tough battle. I put them all over the farm where flies can breed, compost pile, etc. It's not enough to just put them where the adult flies are located.... Hope that helps.

Chris


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## BlackDogPack (Apr 6, 2011)

I am going to try the fly predators this year. My neighbor has had good luck with them. 

I am new to goats but not to flies.  Neem oil is a natural deterrent that I concentrate and use on my horses and dogs for flies, ticks, fleas, etc. DE I use on the horses but once it rains, it's gone. I do sprinkle it on all poops in the yard before picking up, pasture, chicken coop and rabbit pen. Unfortunately it kills the good bugs too that might come in contact with it. I also use it for worming all animals and a natural pesticide on my plants. 

Other sprays that work are garlic, lemongrass, tea tree oil... I know there are more but that's the one's I know right off.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Crystal the fly predators can't handle our fire ant problems.

quick bayt, I simply sprinkle some on a feed sack each night. I use a 5 pound can a year, but I started using mine in March. I don't use sprays or anything else anymore. Vicki


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## supermom (Feb 24, 2009)

WIll he goats eat the Quickbayt and die? I know a chicken will die almost instantly from it, so I am afraid to use it on the floor of the goat barn. I now hang it from the ceiling where nothing but flies an find it. I wish I could sprinkle it on the ground, though.


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## patchofpines (Dec 29, 2010)

I haven't tried this yet, but someone sent an email to me that stated to 'hang baggies of water with pennies in them. ' This is suppose to deter the flies? Something about the reflection? I am going to try this year along with fly predators.


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## Hollybrook (Jul 17, 2009)

I'm glad u mentioned this Kim I brought this up last yr and it got ignored if you hang water filled balloons it repells flys, it's not the reflection but by static electricity, use with fly predators instead of chemicals I'm no tree hugger but we've already dumped god knows how much oil and dispersant's in the Gulf now Nuclear fall out in the Pacific Quick Byte is a deadly poison, it does kill fly's but Honey Bee's too how bout the birds that eat the poisoned bee's and flys nobody knows the long term impact on the environment from using these deadly chemicals.


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

Bags of water with pennies helps too, my sister did that last year, I thought she was nuts but she hung a bag at the front & back of each barn and she hung a bag by each door in the house and we didnt have any flies trying to sneak in this year, the barn seemed to stay fly free. The fly predators help but my neighbor has donkeys and she started a new manuer pile towards the end of last summer thats about 30ft from our fenceline so a nice new fly breeding ground.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> Crystal the fly predators can't handle our fire ant problems.
> 
> quick bayt, I simply sprinkle some on a feed sack each night. I use a 5 pound can a year, but I started using mine in March. I don't use sprays or anything else anymore. Vicki


Perhaps that's why I had ZERO luck with the Fly Predators last year......for me they were a huge waste of money. Tried the pennies in water trick last year in my rabbit room too....No luck with that either.....

Ended up scrubbing all rabbit cages ONCE A WEEK and bleaching/scrubbing down the floor twice a week and that kept the fly issue bearable.....but the work involved was too much. Just one of the many reasons my bunnies are no more 

I'm currently raking the sleeping area twice a day, the pen once every two weeks and am using a fly spray on the girls. It's helped a bunch, but I will definately look into the Quick Bayte. Thanks for the tip!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

If you kind of note Cyrstal with the answers, those of us in the south who don't have freezes, fly larve doesn't get killed in the soil like it does up north. So our flies of course are much worse. 2 goats, sure fill bags with water and pennies, I know they work for house flies on our porch, but barns, dairy barns with 25+ goats in them? I use Quick Bayt. I am probably the most unchemical person around, I don't use sprays and posions because of my lungs, but there are no bees in my barn eating the Quick Bayt and flies don't go off to die, they die by the hundreds on my feed sack and cement surrounding it...they are so thick after rains I use my leaf blower to blow them off the cement before milking.

Of course don't put poison out with the goats, certainly not around babies, I pick up the Quick Bayt feed sack when I have the babies out, I mean isn't that a no brainer? But we never had chickens dieing or even interested in the Quick Bayt, it must smell awful because adult does who have sniffed it or the dogs, make horrible faces just getting close to it. It works.


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## cheesemoose (Jun 23, 2010)

Vicki how are you presenting the Quick Bayt around the goats and around the chickens


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## supermom (Feb 24, 2009)

I put out the little red granules and 30 minutes later (or less) went back out and found a dead chicken where I had put it out. I am positive that is what killed it. Boy did I move fast to get it up! I hang it in trays from the ceiling now, but it doesn't get enough flies that way to make a big difference.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I sprinkle some on a feed sack each evening, maybe a couple of tablespoons. There are thousands of flies dead in the morning, if you start early enough, soon there will be less and less flies dead and no flies in the barn. If you miss putting it out just for a few days, flies are everywhere again. When people visit during the heigth of summer barn flies, I will have none. The stress and illness flies cause our goats is worth keeping your hens and baby goats out of at least some part of your barn that you can use something like this, if flies are bad. My barn is just about 300 feet from 350 acres of cattle, it's the only thing that has really controlled the flies.

I keep mine in my milking room, feed storage area, so it's not in with the goats where they live, they do walk into this are obviously to be milked. Vicki


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## cheesemoose (Jun 23, 2010)

Thank You for the info I be live I will give Quick Bayt a shoot


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## peregrine (Dec 9, 2008)

i milk in my laundry room! no flies in there!


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## cheesemoose (Jun 23, 2010)

Not sure but if I brought any goats into my wife's laundry room I would be sleeping in the barn.


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

Adult goats won't bother it but curious kids will. Like children, kids will eat anything.


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## prairiegirl01 (Jun 2, 2008)

Don't forget to be careful around dogs too--mine got into some horse antibiotic that I had sprinkled on top of grain and applesauce the other day (someon had put the feed basin down low)--luckily didn't eat very much, only temporary vomiting. So, I'm nervous about something like Quick bait since to be most effective it needs to be down low where flies feed--also, what about chickens eating deadflies?


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