GNAT AND FLY PROBLEMS IN THE HORSE
Gnats and Ear Trauma
Because of the spring rains, the gnats are abundant this year, especially if your pastures are by a creek and trees. We have seen many cases of self-inflicted ear trauma because of an allergy to the gnat bites on the inside of the ear. The gnats are biting all horses’ ears but is a greater problem for the horse if it has the insect bite hypersensitivity. This horse itches his ear on a tree branch or other object causing cuts to the skin on the inside of the ear. The inside of the ear becomes raw, draining and painful. This summer we have seen three horses with hematomas of the ear. When the gnats are swarming and biting the inside ear, the horse shakes its head so violently that it ruptures a blood vessel under the skin of the ear, causing a hematoma and a thick swollen ear. This requires lancing the ear skin to remove the blood clots and stitching the ear skin back down. Of utmost importance is gnat control.
A fly mask with ears or an ear bonnet worn 24/7 is a must to help prevent the gnats from biting inside the ears. Applying insect repellant ointments or liquids on the inside of the ears to help repel the gnats; Swat, MTG (available at Tractor Supply), Deep Woods Off or Repel, Skin so Soft, our ear tick medicine, ichthammol, and XO. Continue gnat treatment until a frost kills them in November.
For those horses with an insect bite hypersensitivity allergy rubbing their tails, manes, belly, or chest, gnat control is also necessary. You must apply repellents twice a day 6:30am at dawn and 7:30pm at dusk because that’s when the gnats and small black flies are biting. Fly sprays work better on flies not so good on gnats. Diluted Skin so Soft, MTG oil, natural fly sprays Equi Shield work well because they are oily and fragrant. Repel or Deep Woods Off with Deet is effective. Boogie insect repellant lotion from the pepper plant works well on the belly. Treatment also involves a cortisone shot and antihistamine powder to stop the itching.
Stable fly problems
If you have a bad fly problem, it will take a while and stable management changes to get it under control. First look at how you dispose of your manure. That is where the flies lay eggs and hatch. Compost manure away from the barn. A big high pile reduces the surface area available to flies and heats up killing the eggs. Having the manure removed from the property is best. Feed through supplements such as Solitude or 707 MultiFly contain growth inhibitors that break the life cycle of the stable and house flies in the manure. If you start now with that it will prevent new flies, but you are still dealing with the older fly population (lifespan of 30 days) so it will take a month before you see a reduction in flies.
Putting Fly predators on manure out in the pastures, compost pile, and stalls is effective at keeping the fly population reduced. They must be started in March/April and reapplied every 3-4 weeks for best results. It is too late for them to be very effective this summer. Feed thru growth inhibitors can be used simultaneously as it will not harm the adult fly predators, but the chemical in a barn fly spray system will kill them.
Fly traps need to be hung outside the barn. It attracts flies so If you hang them in the barn, you bring the flies in. Sticky paper fly strips can be hung in the barn. Some barns use Golden Malrin fly bait on an empty feed sack or scatter it on the floor of the aisle way.
If you have a fly problem, be watchful for draining eyes or cuts on your horse. The flies are attracted to these areas where they lay eggs. From this, the Habronema larvae develop causing a summer sore in the corners of the eyes or in a cut. Keep a fly mask on 24/7 and bandage cuts to prevent a summer sore. Cuts that cannot be bandaged can be treated with scarlet oil spray, Aluspray, or Silver Honey which work also as a coating fly repellent. Treatment of summer sores is difficult requiring surgery and injections into the lesions.
Nothing works on the big black horse flies except your hand.
The screwworm fly cases are at the south Texas/ Mexico border counties. Because of diligent sterile fly release and quarantine programs, they have been contained and have not migrated to north Texas.
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