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Face Flies.......; a little trick
Topic Started: Jun 22 2009, 07:32 AM (225 Views)
2bayboys
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Not as bad as you think I am.
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I read somewhere that Bounce dryer sheets helped to keep face flies at bay. Yesterday I took my baby for a trail ride and tied a Bounce sheet to the brow band, and it worked like a charm! :clap:

So last night I cut Bounce sheets in half length-wise and tied the pieces to make three lengths of dryer sheets (long enough to hang just above the eyes), tied a piece of braiding yarn around the middle of each, and secured the sheets into the forelocks of my three geldings.

This morning, my boys who are usually standing at the gate begging to come in because of the durn flies, were still happily out grazing in the middle of the field, and they all still had their Bounce sheets hanging from their forelocks. Voila!

I don't know how long the affect will last, but even if I had to do it every evening it's worth it for the obvious relief it brought them. Cheap, easy to remove, and easy to maintain, and I hate leaving fly masks on overnight.

Any other good tricks out there?
Edited by 2bayboys, Jun 22 2009, 07:32 AM.
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Trialbyfire
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You're BANNED!
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I'm going to try it! Although I'm not sure my mare has enough forelock to hold them in....but I'll give it a shot. Those flies are horrible!
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Delia
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Does it work for gnats too? We don't have much of a fly problem (thank you fly predators), but the gnats have been HORRIBLE this spring. We did just have two pair of barn swallows establish nests in the overhang off the back of my horse's stall (where the barn cat can't reach them), and since they arrived there has been a dramatic drop-off in the gnat population. :cheer: :cheer:
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2bayboys
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Not as bad as you think I am.
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We don't seem to have a huge gnat problem, and very few bugs in the barn (barn swallows and stall fans help a lot), but the face flies in the field are very annoying. So I can't speak to the gnat issue with the Bounce sheets, but I can say that my guys didn't have anything swarming around their eyes and ears this morning, and not a single deer fly on my trail ride yesterday.
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jn4jenny
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Is the meadow on fire?
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Hate to be a party pooper, but those dryer sheets are chock full of pet-unfriendly chemicals. Benzyl acetate, camphor, chloroform...these are not things I'd want hanging off my horse's face. :(
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2bayboys
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Not as bad as you think I am.
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Seriously??!!! Worse than fly spray? I use the things on my clothes, which I then wear next to my skin.


Oh durn, I don't want to harm the ponies, just the flies.
Edited by 2bayboys, Jun 22 2009, 12:37 PM.
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