Bug Zappers for Mean Horse Flies!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
ivyleager

ivyleager

LifeTime Supporter
Sep 6, 2007
498
Raleigh-Durham,NC
How do I convince hubby that installing (meaning him doing the work) a bug zapper is in his own best interest?

We seem to have more horse flies this year, and earlier than usual. Kids and I have been chased from the pool 3x already and MOMMA AIN'T HAPPY ABOUT THAT!

I brought up the subject of bug zappers and he said no. He appears to be pretty adamant. So, first things first: Do they work and help limit the bugs? He'd be even more opposed to spraying chemicals as we have pets. So that's out of the question.

I've informed him that a summer without his family in the pool has the potential of making life (his) more difficult and hugely more expensive (after all if I can't hang in the pool there is always the mall......)

Thanks!
 
You have my full sympathy and understanding. We, too, are chased away from the pool by horse- and deerflies, a development over the past 2 years since the horse boarding stable opened behind our property. I did a lot of reading and have learned a few things.

They breed in damp environments; our pools ate attractive to them. The damp ground in the vicinity becomes their home.
They're attracted to dark colors. Commercial traps all involve a black or very dark blue ball or some other shape in a dark color.
They're most active during the hottest part of the day.

I spray my dogs with a light misting of Zodiac which repells biting flies, also ticks and fleas.
I wear a straw hat when I'm in the pool. My husband wears a dark blue T-shirt.
I keep a badminton racket—several, actually—at hand and smack them when I see them fly by, then step on them.
Duck under if you have one on you while in the pool, they'll fly off.

Because we, too, have pets we aren't going to fog the yard or pool area. I do spray Malathion or Sevin around the pool and under the raise pool deck when I start noticing the biting flies. It has helped some.

But mostly, we don't swim between noon and 16:00.
 
2 words- fly predators. Used in conjunction with a fogger,we no longer suffer flies around the pool or our stable and corral. We have horses and these guys really work. They are delivered x 2 weeks starting in April, we dump them out around damp and horse occupied areas and they go to work laying their eggs in the fly pupae meaning no hatched flies. We have about 80% less flies after a couple weeks and stays that way the whole season. The fogger helps mosquito issues and residual flies.
 
Thanks everybody! I've never heard of Fly Predator before and will show that to hubby. Not sure where we'd put them as we have no horses. Neighbor 1/4 mile away has 2 horses, so maybe the flies travel here??

I may resort to Sevin dust at edge of pool on outside of fencing.

Thanks again.
 
With fly predators you just sprinkle them out anywhere there is damp ground (like ariund pools or garden hoses) or around your storage areas for trash bins or compost piles. You dont need livestockt
 
ivyleager said:
Thanks everybody! I've never heard of Fly Predator before and will show that to hubby. Not sure where we'd put them as we have no horses. Neighbor 1/4 mile away has 2 horses, so maybe the flies travel here??

I may resort to Sevin dust at edge of pool on outside of fencing.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You could, but with Sevin being a contact poison (the flies have to touch it to die) you probably won't have much luck with it unless they land directly on it.
 
I'm going to look into the fly predators. Thanks for that. When they are harassing me in the pool, I have a white cap that I spray with strong bug repellent and wear. It does seem to help, and an added bonus is the cap makes a good swatter for when one lands on the edge of the pool. Just be sure to use a light colored cap because the flies are attracted to dark colors.


(Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk. Please pardon any typos!)
 
I've used fly predators for 3-4 years now. Last year was the first year with a pool for us. We had a lot of horse flies so I'm not to sure how well the predators work on them. I know they've worked real well on other flies. We had horse flies around until dark and would swat them as much as possible.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
What do you guys consider horse flies? "Horse fly" is what my husband calls the large flies that are slightly bigger than a deer fly but grey-black instead of yellow. To me, those are just biting flies, and horseflies are larger (about 3/4 inch long) pitch black with black wings and very MEAN. Then there are Greenheads which are even bigger but greyish in color with the big green eyes. Slightly less aggressive than the black flies I call a horse fly, but only slightly. Anyway, we have 'em ALL and they are pretty bad this season.

Besides the cap trick I mentioned above, I find that lighting either a Thermacell or Off Powerpad lamp near the pool helps keep them away.
 
Marigolds. :)

Swing by Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal Mart, wherever, and grab some pots of marigolds. A great many bugs (including flies and wasps) absolutely hate the smell, and will stay away. 2 simple 12" pots of them, on either side of our steps, keep the ingress/egress safe from wasps.

I suspect they'd do the same for your horse flies, and they dress up the deck and pool to boot. :) They're also not expensive, so they're an easy, cheap option to try.
 
The marigolds is a good idea along with chrysanthemums. Was in the pool vacuuming today and they were out in force! We call them biting flies cuz as soon as they land those buggers bite the Crud out of ya. I just let them land on me and smack em then waved them off to the skimmer. Of course no one wants to be smacking themselves and flailing their arms around in the pool. That'd look silly. Lol
 
We live in the middle of nowhere, and are surrounded by pasture for cattle, and those big "Mean" horse flies get to be way too much if the neighbor puts his cattle in either of the fields close to the house.

We also have those Red Wasps, that just love building their nest in the eves of our house, these things are far meaner than the horse flies, if you walk around the end of the house they will flat out attack you out of nowhere, and it feels like someone just hit you with a baseball bat when they sting. :hammer:

We have been fighting both of these as well as misquotes and regular flies for years, well early this spring I was searching for a cure for the wasps, and ran across somewhere that using Tiki Oil, (Citronella, I buy the kind with Lemongrass Oil in it), would keep the wasps and horse flies away just like all the other flying pests, so I took 2 of the cans out of our torches and hung them one on each corner of the house where they build their nest, and lite them for about 4 hours one evening and then for the whole day next, they turned the corners black from the smoke, but guess what, those wasps hated that, they came rushing out of there like their butts were on fire, lol.

So far they have not come back, and it just so happens that the neighbor moved his cattle to the field closest to the house and the horse flies didn't come calling either.

Now whenever he puts his cattle close to the house I stick a couple of Tiki torches close to the fence between them and the house and the flies stay away. :whoot:

I am going to look into some of the other things you great folks have suggested also, can't have too many weapons, lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply