The other day, I noticed one of the barn kittens wasn’t doing so well. From the signs, I assumed it was some sort of respiratory disease– snotty nose, lethargy, crusty eyes. I took him to the back porch for monitoring and treatment.
Upon closer examination, I found a huge hole in his neck, full of pus and necrotized matter. As I cleaned it out, I pulled a huge maggot from his neck! I thought maybe flies had gotten into it, but it was the only one there, and it was twenty times larger than any normal maggot I had seen before.
Turns out, it was a botfly– a nasty little pest that lays its eggs on a host animal and the parasite buries itself in the skin until it pupates and eats its way out. The infection can cause respiratory distress in animals, especially if its buried in the neck.
After that ordeal, I knew immediately what I should write about this week– external horse pests. Because the summer is full of bugs, and even if you don’t have a horse YET, knowing what pests will be in your area will help you prepare for how to treat and combat such bugs.
So here are five of the most common horse pests, and what you can do to treat them.
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1# Flies
The old riddle “what has a tail, four legs, and flies?” applies to horses everywhere. Flies affect horses in almost every part of the world, and they affect every equine except for the zebra (more on that below).
On the most harmless scale are the annoying stableflies and houseflies. These don’t bite, but they do feed on horse sweat and saliva, and can cause plenty of irritation for being so persistent. On the most harmful side are huge biting horse flies (I hate these things with a passion– they make even the sweetest, calmest horse go crazy. I’ve gotten very good at crushing them over the years.) and the tsetse fly that carries African Sleeping Sickness, which can actually kill your horse. And some horses are allergic to fly bites, making these pests even more painful.
Where Are They Found? Everywhere, except for Antarctica.
How To Deal With Them: Unfortunately, it’s impossible to completely eradicate flies, but there are several measures you can take to control them.
Set out fly traps as early in spring as you can. This reduces the summer populations drastically. The best ones are the traps that stink like death but collect masses of bugs in sticky liquid. This even works for horse flies, which are the hardest of the flies to kill off. There are also sticky traps, and electric bug zappers.
Flies prefer trash cans and decaying matter to breed in, so containment of manure will go a long way. Some people choose to buy parasitic wasps, tiny, nonstinging insects that eat fly larva. There have been excellent results with this method.
If your horse is particularly bothered by flies, you can buy them a fly mask and boots. Some horses aren’t used to these and may need to be desensitized to them before you can leave them on long term.
Interestingly enough, scientists did studies on zebras to figure out why they weren’t affected by the tseste flies that plagued their regions. It was discovered that their stripes confused the compact eyes of the flies, and they essentially couldn’t see the animal. Similar results have been achieved with zebra-striped fly blankets and masks.
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2# Mosquitos
Who doesn’t hate mosquitos? I swear, if it wasn’t for the fact that the males drink nectar, then I would think that mosquitos came AFTER the Fall of the Garden.
And for a horse with very sensitive skin, mosquitos are even worse. Imagine you had a mosquito bite, but your skin is so sensitive that it can twitch off every fly you feel involuntarily. Mosquitos are a nightmare for horses.
And mosquitos also carry some very harmful diseases, making prevention even more important.
Where Are They Found? Like flies, mosquitos exist on almost every continent, except for Antartica.
How To Deal With Them: The biggest thing is to get rid of standing water. Mosquitos need still, standing water to breed in, so removal of as much standing water as possible goes a long way.
Mosquitos also hate certain scents, like lavender, citronella, eucalyptus (brown recluse spiders hate eucalyptus too), catnip, rosemary, pine oil, and peppermint oil. There are a lot of natural essential oil mosquito repellants that you can use on horses that are quite effective. Make sure that they are safe for horses– some essential oils are quite toxic to them, even topically.
Also, attract mosquito predators! Dragonflies, bluebirds, bats, and swallows love mosquito snacks. Dragonflies take care of the larvae, while bats and birds eat the adults. A single brown bat eats one million mosquitos in a night, and they love flies too. You can find resources online for building bat boxes. I have a bat who visits the farmyard every evening, and his favorite spot to visit is the compost pile. I don’t know where he lives, but I hope he brings his friends.
Ducks also love mosquitos (any insects for that matter), and they will invade every receptacle of water to feed off of them. They also produce lovely eggs, so their benefit is twofold.
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3# Ticks
I am convinced these nasty creatures are the spawn of Satan. Blood-sucking, disease carrying, creepy little creatures who can swell five times their size with bugs. A side hobby of mine is pulling them off the pigs and tossing the blood-bloated buggers to the ducks. I don’t have too many ticks in the areas where the chickens and ducks comb frequently, but there are plenty in the backwoods. And getting them off is a nightmare.
And horses are always trekking through their favorite spots to hide– the tall grass.
Where Are They Found? Almost every continent, even Antarctica.
How To Deal With Them: Ticks are hard to keep under control, especially if you live in the woods with deer, small animals, anything warm-blooded.
Ticks hate the taste of garlic, so there have been some studies showing the effectiveness of feeding garlic to horses. This also helps with mites and lice. There are also topical sprays you can use.
Chickens are the ultimate tick prevention team. Even as I write this, an army of chickens are swaggering through the grass, in search of ticks. They often get the smaller seed ticks the ducks miss. And they turn those terrible things into lovely eggs.
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4# Botflies
As you can tell from my earlier story, I’ve experienced firsthand the disgustingness of botflies. Mostly feeding on squirrels and rabbits, botflies usually lay their eggs on the horse’s legs and underside. The horses usually can lick them off, but then the larva hatch in the stomach, sometimes leading to colic. If they burrow in the skin, they cause open sores that quickly become infected.
Where Are They Found? The Americas and some parts of the UK and Europe.
How To Deal With Them: Fly boots are exceptionally helpful, since they keep the flies from landing on their favorite place on the horse. Most fly sprays also deter them.
If you horse does end up infested with bots, you can treat the horse with an appropriate amount of ivermectin. It usually comes in a paste. As for sores, clean the wound out (after removing the larva, of course), and pack it with bag balm or something similar. We used a medical clay, since it would also draw out any remaining bacteria and was easier to wash out than bag balm.
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5# Mites and Lice
There’s a joke in my family about the seven scariest words to hear: “Welcome home, honey. The kids have lice.”
And lice and mites are disgusting creatures indeed. I’ve lost a beloved Rhode Island Red rooster to mites, and the ducks have occasionally been plagued with wing lice. And every year the goats come out of winter with lice.
Thankfully, lice and mites are host specific, so the type to infest your horse will unlikely start snacking on your scalp. Nevertheless, they are a problem for the horse. Lice are found on the back and look like flat white crawling things. Mites are microscopic, but they leave their mark by excessive dandruff.
Where Are They Found? Everywhere. Even Antartica. However there are only a few specific lice and mite species that affect horses.
How To Deal With Them: You can use chemical pesticides, but these are very harmful to breathe in. If we have to “powder” our animals, we use a mix of powdered sulfur and diatomaceous earth. DE is made of crushed diatoms, and is actually very sharp, on a microscopic scale. It essentially dehydrates the bugs and suffocates them. Be very careful not to create too much dust, as sulfur is extremely flammable. It’s better to dust the horse outside.
Mites and lice also hate the taste of garlic, so feeding garlic to your horse is an excellent way to prevent lice. Just don’t feed too much raw garlic– it can cause sores on the throat.
They also hate the scent of tea tree essential oil, which is safe for almost every species of farm animal on a topical scale. Mixing tea tree oil in a solution of liquid coconut oil creates an excellent mite and lice repellant– and it makes your horse smell amazing.
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Whether you own a horse or don’t, summer pests affect us all. And even if you don’t have a horse yet, I hope that this article was helpful to you, so you can keep an eye out for the local pests that might plague your future horse.
What pests are most common to your area? If you own a horse, what are some pest treatment recommendations you have?