The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Does anyone make their own flyspray?

4K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  honeyloaf72 
#1 ·
Does anyone mix up their own flyspray? How? Does it work? Or is there a commercial fly spray that works that doesn't cost like $70/gallon?
 
#6 ·
I may be wrong but I've seen a lot of people use mouthwash. Just dilute it with water. Cheap and effective. I can vouch personally that it works very well. During a horsecamp where that was ALL they used, we all went around smelling a bit like mouthwash because we would douse ourselves in it before we went riding. I think I got one bug bite on my ankle during the combined horsecamps I KNOW they used it (two horsecamps). That was also the day I decided NOT to spray my pants with the stuff for humans and the day someone else sprayed my horse for me.
 
#9 ·
I also have used the repel-x in the past. I liked it a lot. I have tried almost all of the fly sprays on the market and am not happy with most of them. I have started a list of do nots!!!! Rosebud 64 each pint of repel-x makes 1 gallon of fly spray and the pint is $15. So really you are speeding $15 on a gallon of fly spray that you would usually have to spend over $20 for an already mixed bottle. That is why I loved it so much! It lasted my 2 horses 3 full bug seasons! and that was applying once a day because we trail ride and the bugs out here are very BAD!!!!!
 
#16 ·
This isn't a fly spray but its what I use for my animals and I don't have trouble with bugs at all. It works as a topical and you can feed it to them. Diatomaceous earth (food grade) you can buy online or at a health food store. Use as a flea/pest powder it kills bugs. It is all natural and safe. Also wards off flys. You can use it as a natural dewormer. Look up the recommended dosage. But it kills internal parasites and then when the horse poops it cuts down on flys and other pests in your yard because of the d/earth in the waste. All it is is a ground up algae or something like that, but it dehydrates bugs. I highly recommend looking into it.

I was concerned about using pesticides on my animals because all of mine are rescues with some sort of medical/behavior problem so I switched to all natural methods. This works the best. The only thing is to use sparingly as it doesn't take much and wear a mask. We had an outbreak of sand fleas in the barn a few weeks ago and put this down in all of the stalls and it killed them, same with the lice on my mustang. I also use it on my dogs. I haven't had a flea problem in 3 years.
 
#17 ·
I googled in homemade fly spray and came up with a bunch of fly spray. I've tried quite a few. Bought citrinella oil, skin so soft, just about everything to make the stuff. Guess what, it didn't work. The only thing that does work is the Repel X. If you buy all the ingredients and it doesn't work, you'll end up getting the Repel X and having a lot of left over oils. There're still siting in my cabinet. You can experiment, go to ebay, I bought the oil off ebay. Skin so soft works on me. I put it on straight from the bottle and it keeps those pesty nat away. I bought fly catcher last year, the kind that look like a large mayonaise jar. They didn't catch hardly anything. I baited the jar with liver. Good luck
 
#18 ·
The problem with using essential oils is that they can be harmful if you don't know what you are doing. Some oils animals cannot tolerate and they have to be diluted. It is complicated. I agree that oils do not work as well as other products. In the summer I spritz diluted cedar oil on bandanas and tie them around my dogs' necks to keep the bugs away while they are outdoors. It works well on them, but it doesn't last long and you can't reapply it very often. Still I'm all for using natural products over dousing my animals in chemicals.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top