Fly Predators

How do you manage pest flies? Please share your method. There is no 'right' way.

  • Do nothing and hope for the best.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Use sprays when they get really annoying.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Go after them with the full arsental of fly bait, sprays, and dips. Its all out chemical warfare!

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • Use natural methods along with targeted chemical use.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Go all natural using mechanical proactive mehods along with predators and lime.

    Votes: 2 28.6%

  • Total voters
    7

Ponker

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I'm trying to be proactive about managing flies this year.

One product I found is 'Fly Predators'. it costs about $20 a month starting in March clear into September. About $200 for the year. These are little flies that prey on the pest flies. I was wondering if anyone has tried this program and what difference did it make? I've been wishy-washy about ordering because nobody I know uses this particular method.

In conjunction with the 'Fly Predators' I'll use some traps and manage my manure and wet spots with lime.

I have six large compost piles with wood chips, bedding hay, manure, leaves, and veggie matter cooking right now. When a pile goes cold, I turn it over and add some nitrogen to jump start it. Will my compost piles be a haven for flies? Moving them would be an enormous chore but if necessary, I can get them further from the barn, in a more inconvenient location.

Any advice for managing flies would be greatly appreciated.

I have sheep, goats are coming in March or April, chickens, ducks, and rabbits. My neighbors have horses and the new neighbors are getting a couple of cows. We are rural with no restrictive coding, if that matters in this case. I use deep bedding and clean it out monthly - thus the compost piles. If I wait any longer than a month, the bottom layer is too difficult to manage.
 

Southern by choice

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Fly predators are great but order more than they say. It seems to be more effective after several years of using them.

One issue with us was wet areas... we really had to fix those.

When we went to the grit in the barn that made a big difference as well.

They also have a product (if you ordered from Spalding Labs) called Bye Bye Odor.

GET IT! :)

It is great.. far better than stall dry etc. We mix ours up in a 2 gallon sprayer and rake spent hay as well as clean up the berries, take the wand and mist over- spraying more heavily where the goats have peed. It eats away at the urine(ammonia).
It does have a nice scent too.

I also use it for inside stinky boots, my sons hockey clothes :sick and other applications.
 

Ponker

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@Southern by choice Beautiful website!

Can you tell me about the grit in the barn? Mine has a shallow layer of hay throughout. I'm worried about flies being drawn to the decomposing hay even though I keep it fresh. Right now, I just use plain old barn lime on the floor. On cleaning day, I remove all the old hay (straw is hard to come by here) sprinkle DE and barn lime then add another shallow layer of hay. In the stalls, its the same only they're cleaned more frequently inside the barn. The outdoor stall is cleaned completely down to the hard-packed dirt once a month using the same treatment of DE and lime.

Is the Bye Bye Odor product safe for compost piles? I'll have to give it a try.

We have 2 ponds but no wet areas.
 

babsbag

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I too use the fly predators and like @Southern by choice said, get more. Also start early. Don't wait for the flies. When it got really really really bad last year I ordered a triple amount and also sprayed the underside of the barn roof at night where the flies would congregate with Dawn dish soap and water. I had too many wet spots, by faucets and where I dumped out my milking pail wash water. This year I need to work on that more, not sure how I will do it but right now I have bags and bags of Stall Dry that I sprinkle on water bucket spills and it works pretty good. I think I am going to make a gravel pit to wash water buckets in. I am very anti poison because of the goats, chickens, and bees.

If you have chickens in your barn they will eat the fly predators before they hatch so I put them in little Dixie cups hung from trees and rafters so they can hatch without being consumed.

I also use fly traps, they told me to hang them about 50' from the barn.

I have over 40 goats and 50 chickens...a lot to manage fly wise.
 

Ponker

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I have two hives with local bees coming in the spring. I'm so excited! I'm watching my chemicals much more now than when I lived in suburbia. Does the dawn dish soap kill or repel the flies? I'm learning more than I ever wanted to know about the nasty little insects. They are absolutely the worst thing about summer.
 

babsbag

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The dawn soap kills them but I use much more soap than I have seen listed in articles. I use about 1/2 c. to a gallon of water.

Bees and pesticides is kinda my soap box. I wish labels would just state it plan upfront language how safe they are or aren't.

Even "bee friendly" products will usually have a warning like "don't spray when bees are active". Anything I use in the garden, which is nothing but neem oil or soap and water, I do early evening so it will dry before the bees are out again. I also avoid all seeds and plants that are treated with systemic insecticides, when I can...it is getting harder to find those. The verdict is out on whether or not they are dangerous but not taking the chance.

Here is a great link to toxicity of pesticides on bees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide_toxicity_to_bees
 
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