Spraying for flies

[CharlieTn]

Is it possible to spray to keep down flies and mosquitos? I have been looking at tractor mounted sprayers and see chemicals for bugs. I am new to the mountains and can't believe the flies, nats, no-seeums, mosquitos. I mean swarms attack you on the front lawn.

I have been told keeping the grass cut very short and spraying will help.

Any opinions appreciated.

Thanks

[Soundguy]

The easy stuff is to remove standing water.. tires.. etc. If yo have ponds or large water troughs.. add a goldfish or two... they eat mosquito and larva.

Now.. there area a variety of foggers.. misters, bait and kill, and spray options.

You have the propane powered foggers.. the prpane powered attract and kill stations.. the 'bug-zappers'.. the automated / timed battery powerec spray bombs like small horse stalls use. as well as the bulk /drum pump/mist / spray units that HUGE hose farms use in the barns.

I've also seen an emulsion that uses water and an oil based repellant/poison that you mist behind the tractor. It's a heated fog style dispersal..... might work off manifold or muffler heat.. though I have no experience with that one.. have seen old ones at a distance.

Citronella candles help... there are also many natural plants that some insects don't like.

Bat houses will promote bats int he area if you are in an area that has bats.. and they are a great mosquito eater.

Soundguy

[CharlieTn]

Thanks for the info. I know about the foggers and such but I assumed they were to repel temporarily. I was hoping there was a way to spray that helped reduce the population long term. Do the foggers help reduce the problem? If my only interest is comfort do I need a sprayer or would I be better off with a fogger only? I read about the propane attract and kill units and the sales literature said they work because mosqitoes (I hope flies & gnats) are born and die in a small area and they say they decimate the population.

Thanks

[AntrimMan]

PROPANE FIRED MOSQUITO ATTRACTING MACHINES:

In a word....BEWARE

The optimistic sales literature for the propane fired units sounds very appealing. I have two units, something magne? libert? models. The real name should be money magnet "we liberate you from your money"!
They work on the premise that the emissions from the precisely calibrated propane fired catalyst mimmick the breath exhaled by warm bodied hosts, CO2 and H20 at a specific temperature. It sounds like good science and it is. But science has not accounted for the affect of wind currents. Once emitted, the vapor trail is subject to any breeze that may occur and is thus quickly dissapated and rendered much less useful as an attractant. Heck, the user is supposed to also buy and install a chemical attractant. That attractant is made by another company and the EPA stopped the distribution and fined the company because it wasn't registered. A fine was paid and that has since been resolved. My units are registered and I was never notified of any health issues concerning the handling of the attractant or of any EPA settlement, but that's another story entirely.
My two units are sequentially serialized and one burns twice the propane that the other does, just a little problem with calibration?
Some people must like the units, the company is still in business. I'm not happy with my two units, during the one entire season used, I might have caused the dessication of fifty blood seeking pests.
That's like setting fire to a $20 bill every time you smack a mossy.
Consumer reports tested all sorts of propane units, you should research that and others while considering any purchase.

Here is the bottom line: you will still have flies and mosquito's and still get bites so be realistic with your expectations.
SAVE YOUR MONEY, you can buy a CRAP LOAD of repellent for $1000.-
Just MHO, your results may vary,
Martin

[hobbyfarm]

CharlieTn,
Rather than spraying for flies, I've use fly traps like <font color="green">Rescue</font> . I have a couple around my house, and I never have flies around. One note of caution though, service them regularly lest they become fly factories. I usually "harvest" about 5-10 lbs of flies a year. Since the bait is biodegradable, I dispose of the flies in the irrigation canal close to the house. Good luck on mosquitos though.

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I know about the foggers and such but I assumed they were to repel temporarily. )</font>

All poisons and traps are temporary. Some of them can may give you worthwhile tempory relief.

Long term, SoundGuy hit the nail on the head. The best strategy is filling puddles, removing old tires, mowing adjacent fields and brush low, building bat boxes, and promoting predator fish and insects in nearby ponds.

[DaveNay]

If your flies are limited to a relatively small area such as we have with our horse paddock, then you might want to take a look at Fly Predators from Spalding Labs. These are another little bug that has a taste for the fly larve, and actually prevents the larve from maturing into adults. It doesn't work real well to control a fly population in mid season (i.e. right now, this year) but if you start them early in the year (we start in May), then they do a really good job keeping the flies under control.

Dave

[CharlieTn]

Thanks. I was afraid of that! I have found most things too good to be true are.

Charlie

[CharlieTn]

rescue may be a plan. "The flies" I am most concerned with are tiny little gnat type. They swarm around you like crazy. The local people tell me I will get used to them but I don't think so. Do you know if products like rescue work on the little pests?

Thanks

[CharlieTn]

No livestock yet. I did read about the predators from a google search. Seems to be a winner. I will be mowing like crazy and spraying garlic I guess.

Thanks