This fly war has gotten serious.

I was trail riding today about two hours before sundown. It was around 95 degrees, and my horse and I were miserable. The misery was made complete by a terrible horsefly ambush. The things were on me like a cloud! They bit me all over, bit my horse and drew blood on her neck and ears... She reared up in frustration, which is not something I want to deal with. She and I were both coated in fly spray, and she was wearing a fly mask with ears. Yet the flies still came in swarms... What else can I do? Anything to make the flies leave...

Subscribing. It's still too cold for the flies to be terrible here, but they're starting to come out and I'm dreading the hot, flies-buzzing-around-my-face days ahead.

If I knew the answer, I'd probably be a millionaire.
We get really, really bad deer flies here (eastern Ontario). Not as many horse flies thankfully, those suckers are nasty, but the deer flies are almost as painful.

I just bought Absorbine Ultrashield EX. It's beating the blackflies pretty well. We'll see what happens when the mosquitoes and deer flies hit...

Only thing to do if you live in an area over run by flies is to . . . Live somewhere else! Not much help, huh?

I recently moved from Wisconin, home of Mega Millions of Mongo Mosquitoes, to Idaho, where I think I saw a mosquito last fall. Flies have bothered the horses in the corral a bit but I wasn't bothered while riding last fall.

Of course, I haven't ridden through a summer here, yet, so I might be in for a Nasty Awakening. But I hope not!

Sailor, You will get some deer flies in July, Usually in areas that stayed damp. Mosquito in early summer, again in areas where the snow melt has created wet boggy area. But for the most part we are pretty lucky here in the Intermountain West, our dry humidity doesn't encourage lots of the kinds of flies that really torment us or the horses. I do get face flies around the corral. But not many of the biting variety.

Thanks Painted. That's about what I'm expecting. Not expecting too many tics, either, once we get past the spring damp. Wisconsin was Tic Heaven! Pulled 'em out of my hide pretty much every weekend. Haven't even see one here, yet, tho a friend took the school kids to a park and they found a couple.

Sure is nice to be able to sit outside in the evening enjoying a Tall Cold One and not have to worry about needing a blood transfusion to replace what was sucked out of ya!

I have a biting fly trap which helps greatly with the size of the biting fly population at my place. It obviously does not help when I ride off my property.

When my normal fly spray is not working I use Deep Woods Off. Great stuff. (Though it does not seem to work well for stable flies, just everything else.)

What's a biting fly trap?

Lots of options:

Literature

Green Head Trap


Mine is very similar to the second link.

Alwaysbehind, does that thing capture different types of flies or just Greenheads? What types do you find it helps control?