We tried something this year that has turned out to be the best fly control ever! We have a dog kennel (commercial) and can have up to 35 dogs at any time. We also have sheep, goats and around 50 chickens. We've always been careful to keep our animal areas clean and dry (immediate cleanup with good drainage and a barn that is cleaned regularly), but the fly issue was always a problem. We use the "fly predators" from Spaulding Labs and our fly population has dropped to almost nothing. They automatically send us 15,000 of these little insects every 3 weeks and they lay their eggs in the fly larvae, killing them. The flies never get a chance to hatch, so they never reproduce. The predators themselves are non-invasive and not at all noticable. The directions say to spread them on the ground, but the rep at Spaulding Labs told me to hang them so that the chickens don't eat them. They cost less than $20 per 5000 (the amount that would be needed for a small area) and you can choose to have them shipped every 3 or 4 weeks throughout the summer. We started late this year so we already had flies. It took one generation (21 days) to really notice the difference. Next year we plan on ordering for our first shipment the middle of April before we even see a fly.
