Horse owners- fly season is here!! (pics)

[Funky Feathers]

Hey y'all, bug season is upon us. The flies and mosquitoes are so bad down here, this is what I had to do:

I bought the fly sheet on eBay, but had it on my horse backwards at first, Lol!

Here is how I cope with the bugs:

Yeah I know it looks hilarious, but it beats getting eaten alive! Lol!!

I know my horse (Josie) is much more comfortable now.

 

[debilorrah]

Ok that is danged funny!!!!! We rehomed our horses recently and the fly problem is much better, but not good enough!!!

 

[Peaches Lee]

Love it!! We have noticed a decrease in fly numbers and we are thinking it's the chickens. We did have one horse with a warble**shudders**. Yuck! I do believe my chickens ate that nasty thing though. We bring our horses in during the day so that helps them a lot too.

 

[~Wind~]

Bugs are bad here too, but unfortunatly my arab gelding can get his fly sheet off in record time so I gave up putting it on him. The other horses dont seem to be bothered the same way as him.

So does a stocking over the face really help? I am almost willing to try I'm getting so sick of mosquito's. I can handle them almost everywhere but near the meat chicks. I open the lid to their tractor and thousands fly up at me. I wonder if that is normal. I'll have to make another post now to find out lol

 

[flocksalot]

I've never seen a horse sheet on backwards before, but sometimes I think they don't know whether their coming or going. We just spray em down good and send em out to pasture. The chickens do a great job digging through the manure eating bugs and other nutrients. The manure in the garden gets a good going through by the ducks. It's funny they get their head all the way up to their eyes looking for bugs. Turkeys do an awesome jog picking out ticks on the pasture, so beyond that we don't have to do much for the bugs. The biggest problem we have is with those nasty little gnats and beyond spraying everything and everywhere I think we are stuck with them for now. Thinking of trying the nylon, but don't want the sheriff to stop by. We have a standing order to arrest anyone on the property. Would hate to have to try to explain that one.

 

[Funky Feathers]

The nylon stocking does help a lot, but it sure looks funny and smushes my face, Lol!!

 

[jettgirl24]

This makes me SO glad I live in western WA. While our summers are often short and the rain lasts loooooong into spring/summer we have very few bugs here. People at the barn complain about the flies but there really are very few, especially compared to Phoenix where I grew up and had my first horses.

 

[Kelly G]

May I introduce you to, Siggy....or as we call him during fly-season, "Super Siggy."

I think I have the only horse in Florida with an allergy to flies! I have a "prescription fly-spray" (mixed at my vets direction & it works GREAT) plus his manly blue armor:

 

[llrumsey]

I love super siggy, he looks like he is ready to go off to war.

How can the net over the face work? Doesnt the bugs still bite you through it?

 

[Kelly G]

LOL! He IS off to war! He's fighting a war against formidable foes...or flies

He's dressed to kill!

The mesh is really, really fine and it's pretty stiff so it puffs out, away from his face....it works really, really well and keeps him from rubbing his face raw.

It came from Schneiders and was under $20: http://www.sstack.com/Horsewear_Fly-Sheets-Sun-Protection/Heavy-Duty-Comfort-Plus-Fly-Mask/