Favorite Fly Repellents

Its mid-July and the flies are swarming on little donkey legs.  They're much worse on the donks than on my horse; there can be 20 or more on one little donkey leg.  Those of you who've been with me for a long time will remember all the different methods we tried to keep those darned flies away -- sliming legs with vaseline, duct taping vet wrap around legs, Kensington leg wraps, and, of course, traditional fly spray.

I hate putting chemicals on those legs every single day so over the years I've fine-tuned my list of favorites.

 
Starting from left to right:
Equisect (made by Farnam) contains pyrethrum,cintronella, clove stem, thyme and corn mint.  Use full strength.

CLAC (made by Pharmaka) contains citronella oil, clove oil, thyme oil, cedar oil, gernaium oil and lauryl sulfate.  This is a concentrate which should be diluted 7:1.

Marigold "equine rehydrant spray" (made by Eqyss).  Although labeled as the rehydrant spray, Amazon states: " MARIGOLD NATURAL BOTANICAL PESTICIDE FREE FLY REPELLANT SPRAY. Marigolds have kept people's gardens free of bugs for years. It's a well known fact. This non-insecticidal horse spray uses marigolds in the same way.  NON-TOXIC. 100% SAFE NOTE: This product features new labelling that reads "Premier Marigold Rehydrant Spray" - this is the still the same great all natural insect repellant formula that was chosen by the Horse Journal as "Best product for horses with sensitive skin!".

I've also used the Skin-So-Soft, water, vinegar, eucalyptus  homemade blend, but find it only works in the early or late summer months when flies are not in peak season.

And, of course, I rotate.  In fact I've been using the Equisect for a while on the donks and its time to move to one of the other two.

The other trick I started using a couple of years ago is to keep a stash of baby wipes in the shed and use them to apply the repllent.  That way I can work it into the hair instead of it lying on the top.

Happy spraying!!