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What Your Horse Wishes You Knew About the Summer Fly Season
As a horse owner, you know the drill: the moment the temperature rises, the flies descend. They aren’t just a nuisance to us; they’re a constant irritation to our horses and can even pose serious health risks. Fortunately, Teskey’s has everything you need to keep the pests at bay and your horses comfortable all season long.
There are many different types of flies that bother our horses. Because different flies require different defenses, identifying your specific backyard pests is the secret to a fly-free season.
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Horse Flies: These large, aggressive pests are known for their painful bites. Only the large female flies feed on blood, and their feeding habits can easily transmit blood-borne diseases.
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Deer Flies: Closely related to horse flies, these large, biting insects also feed on equine blood. Also known as green-headed flies, green flies, or gadflies, they are notorious for transmitting Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) and tularemia. Both horse and deer flies belong to the Tabanidae family, earning them the classification of tabanid flies.
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Black Flies: Commonly referred to as "buffalo gnats" or "turkey gnats", these small, biting insects target the ears and undersides of horses. They can transmit parasitic nematode worms, and their painful bites often leave scabby lesions.
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Stable Flies: These vicious biting flies feed on blood and specifically target a horse's lower limbs and abdomen. Their constant irritation prompts continuous leg stamping and tail swishing.
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Horn Flies: These small pests primarily bother cattle. However, if your horses live near a cattle herd, horn flies will migrate over to bite and plague them as well.
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House Flies: Unlike biting pests, house flies do not pierce the skin. Instead, they feed on fluid from wounds, manure piles, and moisture around a horse's eyes, nose, and genitalia.
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Face Flies: Similar in appearance and behavior to house flies, these pests feed heavily on eye secretions and nasal discharge. They also cluster around wounds, manure piles, and sensitive, moist areas.
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Bot Flies: Adult bot flies do not bite, but they lay distinct yellow eggs on the horse’s body, typically on the legs. When the horse licks the itchy area, the moisture and friction cause the larvae to hatch in the mouth. Once swallowed, they migrate to the stomach and grow into large larvae—commonly called "bots"—which grow to about the size of a honeybee.
Where Do They Come From?
Understanding where these pests breed is your first line of defense. Horse flies and deer flies lay their eggs near water and wooded areas. Because they are incredibly strong fliers, they can travel many miles from their hatching grounds to reach your animals. In fact, a single female horse fly can lay anywhere from 100 to 1,000 eggs per year, making them a relentless threat. On the other hand, stable flies and many other common fly species lay their eggs directly in manure, old bedding, or other decaying material right on your property.
How to Fight Back
Because different flies thrive in different environments, property management is key to breaking their life cycles. You can deter horse and deer flies by encouraging proper water drainage and minimizing swampy areas around your pastures. It is also important to keep pastures and fence lines mowed or cleared of decaying plant matter to remove hiding spots. Finally, practice strict barn hygiene by removing manure, damp or soiled hay, uneaten grain, and any other sources of decaying organic matter at least weekly. By eliminating these breeding sites, you heavily reduce the number of flies that can hatch and plague your herd.
Keeping flies away is not just about comfort; it is a critical step in safeguarding your horse’s health. Every bite from a horse fly or deer fly does more than just cause pain. It creates an open wound that serves as a direct entry point for blood-borne pathogens, including Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA). Furthermore, many horses develop a severe insect bite hypersensitivity—often called sweet itch—which triggers intense, nonstop scratching, hair loss, and raw skin. The constant irritation also takes a heavy toll on a horse's physical well-being. The relentless stress and energy spent running away from swarms can cause rapid weight loss and systemic exhaustion. Down on the ground, the continuous, forceful hoof stomping used to shake off leg-biting pests easily leads to severe hoof cracks, structural damage, and loose shoes.
The threats from non-biting pests are just as serious. While house flies and face flies do not bite, they pose severe health risks alongside the biting stable fly. All three species can deposit parasitic nematode larvae into sensitive areas like the eyes, nostrils, genitalia, and existing open wounds. Because these larvae cannot complete their normal life cycle in these tissues, they trigger a severe allergic reaction that results in chronic, non-healing lesions commonly known as summer sores. Face flies also target facial moisture, easily transmitting the Thelazia eye worm, which causes intense irritation and dangerous secondary infections. Additionally, house flies, stable flies, and horn flies are primary vectors for Pigeon Fever, a bacterial infection that causes painful external abscesses, internal abscesses, and debilitating ulcerative lymphangitis. By understanding these specific threats, you can see why proper fly prevention is a medical necessity for your herd.
Your Multi-Front Defense Strategy
Fortunately, Teskey's has everything you need to build a comprehensive fly defense system. A successful fly management plan requires an all-out assault using multiple overlapping methods, because a single strategy will not affect all fly species the same way. Stocking up on a variety of defensive tools is the best way to outsmart these pests.
Physical Barriers vs. Bait Traps
Mechanical protection and environmental traps target completely different types of insects. Traditional odor-baited fly bags and traps are highly effective for stable and house flies, but you must replace them weekly to keep the attractant fresh and working at peak efficiency. However, these traps are completely useless against horn flies and face flies, which live and rest exclusively on the animal's body. The only way to shield your herd from those specific pests is through topical repellents or mechanical barriers like heavy-duty fly masks, sheets, and boots.
Rotating Chemical Repellents
Fly sprays are a time-tested staple of barn management, but relying on the exact same bottle year after year can cause problems. Because these chemical formulas have been around for so long, local fly populations can gradually develop an immunity to the active ingredients. To keep your topical protection effective, periodically rotate between different brands with varying active ingredients to catch the pests off guard.
The Rules of Feed-Through Control
Feed-through fly control is a highly effective, safe, and non-toxic way to disrupt the fly life cycle right in the manure pile. Just like topical sprays, it is smart practice to switch between different feed-through brands every few seasons to prevent chemical resistance. Most importantly, feed-through supplements operate on an all-or-nothing rule. Every single horse on your property or in your barn aisle must consume the supplement daily, or untreated manure piles will allow the local fly population to bounce right back.
Gear Up for Fly Season at Teskey's
Don't wait for the swarms to take over your barn. Guard your herd from disease, stress, and summer sores by building your defense system today. Drop by Teskey's or browse our massive online collection of top-tier fly sprays, protective sheets, masks, and feed-through systems.