Organic Fly Control Around Animals

 

The fly has four life stages, egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Each stage is an opportunity to put pressure on the fly.

 

Egg and larva

Manure management - removing, windrowing, composting

Conserve fly predators like macrochelid mites and hister beetles.

Conserve dung beetles to bury manure so it doesnt grow flies.

 

Pupa

Release fly parasites on a regular schedule

Let chickens forage among your other animals

 

Adult

Traping - scent traps and visual target traps

Space spraying with Balence, a fly eating fungus

Borate or spinosad based fly bait

Spray microbial products to reduce manure odor, decrease fly egg laying

 

The linked catalog of fly control has a tremendous amount of info to help you decide on a strategy, check for current prices. The other bulletins have updated and expanded information.

catalog  http://www.rinconvitova.com/catalog_fly_control.pdf
catalog in Spanish   http://www.rinconvitova.com/catalog_fly_control_sp.pdf


fly control products  http://www.rinconvitova.com/fly_control.htm
fly parasites http://www.rinconvitova.com/fly_parasites.htm
Biting fly traps  http://rinconvitova.com/fly%20trap%20biting.htm
Sagebrush traps  http://rinconvitova.com/fly%20trap%20sagebrush.htm
sticky traps  http://www.rinconvitova.com/olson%20traps.htm
dung beetles http://rinconvitova.com/dung%20beetles.htm
release station  http://www.rinconvitova.com/fly%20parasite%20release%20station.htm
organic fly spray  http://www.rinconvitova.com/balence%20fly%20control.htm

Here are some suggestions:

Regular releases of fly parasites
Position fly parasite release stations around barn yard
Sagebrush trap, 50 gallon drum size (for high fly density)
Sagebrush trap, 5 gallon bucket size (for around barn, feeding areas)
Biting fly traps around the pasture

The biting fly traps will remove the adult biting flies. To minimize fly breeding in the cow pats in the pasture, there are several approaches. Drag the pasture to break up pats. Run chickens with the cattle - they pull apart the pats and eat the maggots. Introduce dung beetles to bury the pats (not commercially available). The biting flies, Tabanids, have calcified puparia, that cant be parasitized by fly parasites.

We are be happy to talk you through setting up a program to control flies without toxic materials.

We also have a bacterial inoculant, BioStart, that is strongly antagonistic of nematodes, which can be worm parasites spread in pastures. The BioStart is mixed with bacterial food and sprayed or irrigated into pastures, where it decreases parasitic nematodes and increases yield of the grass.

 

See also

Lures for Fly Traps

Rincon-Vitova Catalog of Fly Control in HTML

Catalog of Fly Control in PDF

Catalogo de Controle de Moscas (Spanish version of Catalog) in PDF

Other Organisms for Fly Control - Catalog

USDA and EPA Regulatory Issues

Sagebrush Fly and Yellow Jacket Traps For Outdoor Use - Catalog

Sagebrush Trap Information

Odor Management