SARAH: "Now that summer is coming up,
my horse is completely irritated by the flies."
You're not alone.
"I have a fly sheet, boots, and a mask
as well as loads of fly spray.
It just doesn't seem to work.
My horse either gets too sweaty with all the sheets, boots,
and masks, or it just doesn't keep the bugs away.
Are there any alternatives to keep my horse healthy and happy
or recommended products to keep the flies away without getting
her sweaty and uncomfortable?
It's extremely difficult because she
needs to be covered from head to toe because of her melanomas.
The sun could maybe cause more."
So we got kind of a lot going on.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, you know, there's
a word in there-- "alternatives."
And I look at fly prevention, avoidance--
SARAH: Defense.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Defense--
as not alternatives, but sort of a well-rounded package.
I mean, you've got to group everything together.
We've made different zones, you know?
So one of the first zones-- and she's
not specific about which fly species.
SARAH: She's not.
DR LYDIA GRAY: All of them.
SARAH: Yeah.
The flies.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The flies.
The first zone I think about is-- you know me--
the manure.
SARAH: Yeah, of course.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK, OK.
SARAH: You love poop.
We all know.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And there's a couple
of ways to affect that, because filth flies are called--
they lay--
SARAH: That's adorable.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Adorable.
They-- their eggs and their pupa and their larva,
all that happens in the manure pile.
And so companies have figured out, hey, let's go right there.
And so one thing you can do is there are parasitic wasps that
go into the manure pile, and they
know how deep they penetrate.
They know a lot of things about these insects.
And they lay their own eggs in the pupa of the flies
that are bothering your horse, and then that fly can't mature.
But then the parasitic wasp does.
And so that's really cool.
So you're getting them before they're even born.
SARAH: Yeah.
And wasp sounds scary, but they're not the kind
that bother you or your horse.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: They're just getting the other bugs.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And they're tiny.
You don't even notice them.
So that's one way.
And then they can still outside--
of course you have to remove manure
that's not in the right place.
You have to properly compost it, just turning and storage
and all that.
Any standing water should be removed,
and that's where mosquitoes like to breed.
Also, just plant debris, like vegetative matter,
these insects like to use as--
this organic matter, they like to breed.
SARAH: Grass clippings, that kind of stuff.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Branches, dead-- just all that.
You got to get rid of all that.
You've got to clean your place up.
You can't give them a place to breed and multiply.
You can also get like fly traps.
But be careful with those, because those--
you don't want-- they attract flies, right?
So you don't want to attract flies to your area,
so you kind of set them away from your barn,
away from the areas horses congregate in,
and you attract flies there.
We sell, too, mosquito dunks, which you can put in the water.
And it can be drinking water, and those
don't let the mosquito breed in the water.
So that's the outside.
She mentioned the fly sheets and masks and boots.
And every year, companies are coming out
with better and better coverage.
Because these are physical barriers, right?
As far as repellent, I forget how she explained it.
Loads of--
SARAH: Loads of fly spray.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Loads of fly spray.
There's kind of three categories of fly spray.
So repellents, which repel flies-- that's great.
Insecticides kill, and you want to kill,
but your job is not that.
But also, the third one is the confusing,
the ones that confuse.
And I think we have a Ecovet here.
This is made of fatty acid.
Smells-- new scent.
It, you know, smells interesting.
But it confuses the flying insects,
and so the signals they use from your horse
to tell that your horse is there and a tasty morsel,
they're not getting those properly anymore.
And so they fly around and swirl around,
and they don't land and bite and annoy.
So try one of these categories and see what you think.
Oh, and we're getting a new product.
You might not know this.
It's called Kool Kurtains, with Ks.
And it's just a mesh screen.
So if you can put your horse, whether it's in the stall,
whether it's a run-in-- they make them for run-ins, too--
inside an enclosed area where the air moves,
the UV light cannot penetrate, so it stays cool.
And there's no bugs.
Because her horse being hot and uncomfortable is something
she mentioned.
I think if you make a run-in shelter
or put these Kool Kurtains on your horse's stall and windows,
she will thank you.
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: They're wonderful.
And we don't have them quite yet,
but they're coming very, very soon.
SARAH: Awesome.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So that's going to be super exciting.
SARAH: It's always nice to be able to give
your horses an option for them to make the choice.
Like if you build the run-in, you put up the curtains,
and then if she's bothered, she can go in there.
If she finds that the flies aren't that bad
and she wants to stay out, she can stay out.
DR LYDIA GRAY: She can stay out.
Like if she wants to eat grass, go out and eat grass or run
back in.
SARAH: You decide what's worth it.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
And then the last category that I should mention
is there's a couple of options for feed-through.
And so one of them is the insect growth regulators,
and they're the EPA approved products,
like the Solitude and the Simplifly,
and there's a new one on the market.
I can't think of the name of it.
But those don't let the eggs of the flies hatch.
So that's nice.
And it passes unchained through the horses,
and it's passed in the manure and then once in the manure,
they can lay eggs, but they don't ever mature.
And then the other is-- and that's
sort of a whole barn, herd thinking.
If you want to give your horse its own personal
no fly zone, whatever, a lot of people
feed ingredients like garlic and apple cider vinegar
and brewer's yeast, I think, is another one.
And it's things that discourage flies
from being around your horse, deterrents.
You used the word defense.
So they just make your horse sort of unattractive.
And a lot of people have success with those.
But yet-- you know, feed my horse garlic?
But the horses don't smell like garlic.
But to thhe fly nose, I guess, maybe they do.
SARAH: Can you imagine how cute their noses are?
Probably very wee.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Adorable.
They're adorable, yeah.
SARAH: Very small.
So you can see we have a lot of our favorite fly products
back here that you can see.
There's a wide variety of the offering.
But I also wanted to throw out there,
just like the companies are coming out
with new products every year, the fly sheets
are changing every year.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yes.
Yes.
SARAH: There's a lot of materials
that aren't as heavy as old fly sheets used to be.
There's a lot that are marketed for their breathability,
that the fabric was chosen.
So if she's not tough on a fly sheet,
if she just doesn't destroy her fly sheets--
DR LYDIA GRAY: Or like live in a pasture with--
SARAH: --with other pasturemates who
can be tough on the fly sheet, a lighter-weight fabric
might be a great option for you to consider.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Good idea.
SARAH: And we have our whole No Fly
Zone, where we talk about all the different zones
that Dr. Gray talked about.
So we'll link to that in the video description,
as well, so that you can get some tips
for every zone in the barn.
Because it is full, all-fronts approach
to really beating those bugs.
DR LYDIA GRAY: They're not alternatives.
SARAH: No.