Being a horse owner involves more than just buying a horse. The owner has to be knowledgeable in training, animal health care, exercise, grooming, nutrition and unfortunately, fly control. There are toxic sprays, traps, repellents and zappers that all work with varying degrees of success because they are killing flies one at a time. Fortunately Mother Nature gave us Fly Predators that kill flies a generation at a time.
Fly Predators, also referred to as Fly Parasites and Fly Eliminators are a tiny wasp that kills manure breeding flies in their larval stage before they emerge as adults and can start laying eggs. Although different beneficial insect providers call their product by different names to make it harder for the horse owner to compare tests conducted by major universities show that the spices Musccidifurax zaraptor, Musccidifurax raptorellus & Splangia cameroni are the most aggressive and cost effective.
Fly Predators are a tiny wasp, they do not sting, bite or climb on your animals. The adults are nocturnal, so they are not active when you are and feed only on fresh manure so they will not try to come into your house. Most people say that after release they are not noticeable.
3 days after hatching the female Fly Predator searches out what is called the pupae, inside there are approximately 130 fly eggs. The female Fly Predator bores a hole in the pupae and inserts her eggs (approximately 2 to 9) that feed off the larvae for the next 3 weeks. The flies have been killed and a new generation of Fly Predators hatch and start the same process.
Ideally you want to start releasing Fly Predators in the spring once temperatures start to warm up and the fly population is low. Depending on the number of animals you have make follow up releases every 2 to 4 weeks thru the fly season. By doing this you are building the population of Fly Predators during fly breeding season.
The Fly Predator eggs will over winter in all but the most extreme weather conditions. The second and third year you will notice better results than the first. But because flies have a range of several miles and lay 130 a day compared to the 2 to 9 eggs that a Fly Predator will lay follow up is important. Reduction in the fly population will be in the 70 to 80% range.
Fly Predators only target manure breeding flies so there is no need to worry about side effects of keeping them away from dogs or people.