Barn Fly Control for the Smaller Property

Flies.

I have 4.

Six horses and four flies on my 2 acre property ... without the use of chemicals (as of yet this year).

*I live in Colorado no where near any water. Granted those of you in wetter/hotter climates or near water will have a plethora of flying fly things of all fly varieties - this article pertains to the common barn fly.

A lot of people ask me how I do it. So I thought I’d share.

A few years ago I got ahold of the veterinarian who founded a big fly predator company.

We talked for an hour.

Here is what went down.

She said flies can smell poo from 4 miles away and have no problem bee bopping on over.

Stop “attracting” flies from a radius of 4 miles (or more).

Meaning no fly tapes, fly traps, etc.

Deal with your own flies. Don't make your neighbors flies your problem.

Clean up manure in your barn yard every day. Pasture once a week. No icky decomposing anything on your property.

Get ALL manure off your property within 7 days before the eggs hatch (I have a weekly dumpster).

These simple steps stopped my flies in their tracks. It was eerie. NO flies.

Here is what I add if my neighbors flies are persistent and come on over to party. Pyranha Fly Spray (the yellow bottle) is the only thing I’ve found that actually KILLS flies. Dead. Not just “knock down can recover" or repelling - because then the flies are still there and can live to bite another day - but dead.

If you know me you of course can picture me doing this. If you don't know me ... I'm not THAT weird ... but I will do what it takes to take care of fly business.

When flies invade I sneak up on the piles of manure in the morning and spray them with Pyranha, killing the flies on the piles. There is an art to getting all the flies which I'm sure you can figure out on your own. No need for me to go on and on about how weird I am. Few extra squirts for good measure and into the dumpster it goes.

This year (as of July 1) I have only sprayed legs before I rode but probably really don’t need to. I just don’t have flies.

Granted it is a dry year. But I have done this every year for 7-8 years and even in wet years I just don’t have many flies.

Now miss the weekly pasture clean up or have a late dumpster day and I can have hatching flies out the wazoo. But I can get it back under control within a week.

So in a nutshell: No fly attractants. Buy stock in Pyranha. Sneak attacks. Clean up poo every day and all poo hauled off the property every 7 days.