Fly control is an essential part of being a responsible animal owner. No matter what animals you have at your backyard ranch, fly control is important. Biting flies can affect the gain, rest, health and the stress level of your animals. Flies can also carry diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, cholera and leprosy. They carry millions of bacteria that cause infection such as pink eye.

There are many different types of fly control including: traps, repellants, bait, fly tags for cattle, fly predators and feed additives. Different types of flies require different types of fly control or combinations of fly control.
Animals that are swatting and stomping flies will gain less than animals that are free of flies by using good fly control. They are more concerned with getting the biting flies off of them than they are about eating.

Types Of Fly Control

Fly traps and bait generally catch the type of flies that the trap bait is for (e.g. house flies, biting stable flies, etc). They need to be emptied and replenished or discarded when full or completely used.
Some types of traps can catch unwanted insects or animals such as small birds. Traps generally only trap adult flies.
Repellants such as fly spray only keep flies from biting whatever the spray comes in contact with. Flies still land on the animal.
Feed additives are fed to the animals with their normal feed. When the feed passes out of the body then the flies will not lay their eggs in it and shouldn’t bite the animal. However, the flies will still land on the animals.
Fly predators when used in conjunction with traps and repellants are very effective. They are beneficial bugs that kill immature flies before they hatch. The traps will catch most adult flies and the repellant will keep them from biting the animals. Fly predators have to be used about every 4 weeks during the season.