Flies

[dcp]

I went up to see charlie yesterday he was flat out. Poor thing had a bunch of flies right in the corner of his eyes. Why do they go there? I put a fly fringe on him (hope it's still on) and sprayed him with fly spray he also gets garlic in his feed. Is there anything else I can do to get rid of them?

Has anyone got any tips on making your own flye repellent how expensive are they??

[FudgieFoo]

I make my own. Its a concoction of garlic, tea, vinegar, lemon grass essential oil, rosemary, another essential oil i can't remember the name and citeronella essential oil (make sure your horse isn't allergic first).

What sort of fly fringe have you got? I've got a white mesh face mask this year and its brilliant!

[Jessey]

The flies feast on body fluids, the eyes are easy access :rolleyes:

I have made some fly spray, I used Cold tea, white wine vinegar and citronella oil. Not sure how well it works just started putting it on today :D It cost me 75p for the citronella from the chemist and 89p for the vinegar from Tesco :D

I also have full face masks, fringes were fine but they have to have head collars on (I did get the type that don't need them but they lasted all of about a week before going missing off the face of the earth, let alone the horses) I now have a shires (full with ears and nose), a equilibrum (full with ears and removeable nose) and a mark todd (with ears only). The first two are great, keep the bugs out, keep the sun from burning white noses and stay put but I have to say I have been very dissapointed with the MT, hasn't stayed on any of mine even for 1 day :(

J x

[Nookster]

I make my own fly spray. A lot cheaper and i can overdose him in it if its a bad day and not worry about cost or running out. Have used my own for two years now and worked great.

15ml citronella oil
Mentholated spirits 2 tbsp
Vinegar 4 tbsp
Washing up liquid 2 tbps
1/2 pint stong tea ( i use 7 tea bags)
Make up to 2 litres with water

I also add cedarwood oil, eucalyptus and lavender oil

Not being able to put this near his eyes though I use a full face fly mask. Sometimes i just rub the fly spray on a baby wipe around his head and this helps and let him go out naked on the not so bad days

[dcp]

I have a fly fringe (you know the dangly ones) I never thought of a mask that would me much better. I felt so sorry for him right I'm gonna buy one.

[Nookster]

I use a full lycra one from Robinsons - bought it on sale.
I used to use a cottage craft but the mesh was very hard and the fitting awful so ended up giving it away.

The lycra one goes to the shape of his face and the mesh is very very soft so gets a big thumbs up from me

[Jenni]

tesco are selling fly masks just now.