Joined Jul 2009
1,215 Posts | 0+
Deer Park, Alabama
It may be a coincidence but I started using the maxrax with garlic about two weeks ago and the flies have vanished.
Flies
- Thread starter South Alabama Whitetails
- Start date
-
- Tags
- flies
I too have been trying garlic for flies but it does not seem to be working for me. How are you doing it? I'm adding about 1/2 cup of powdered garlic to about a 5 gallon bucket of feed. Our feed is ground here, not pellets, so it is getting mixed in well and they cannot really leave it behind like they might with pellets.
We use about 8lbs per ton of food grade garlic mixed in the pellet when its made.It seems to keep them off the face area ,but its not the wonder cure. I'm listening to other suggestions also.....Gary
We also have fly traps hanging all over,it's got to help cause they have hundreds if not thousands of flies in them.
Joined Jul 2009
1,215 Posts | 0+
Deer Park, Alabama
I am not sure what the mix is, I am using the 20% fawn and lactating doe from maxrax. The feed mill added the garlic and it seems to be working.
I have fly traps also. I find the Rescue Fly trap bags by Sterling International are the best at catching large numbers of flies. I'm not sure they are the flies that actually bother the deer though. I also have an Epps biting fly trap. It is catching all sorts of flies and other bugs, however I'm not sure it is the right flies. I see lots of flies and bugs in there that I do not see on the deer. I alos use others types of traps and repellents, but still see way too many flies on my deer.I guess I ccan cut back on the amount of garlic I add to my feed then, huh?
Just FYI. I've noticed that since we moved the cattle to new pastures that are further away from the deer pens that the fly poulation in the deer pens has dropped to almost nil. I have chickens that live in the deer pens to help with fly control also. The rescue bag fly traps are filling up with flies in about 1 to 2 weeks and need repalcing frequently. But I saw a huge drop in fly population with the cattle move. I'm thinking of feeding my cattle garlic somehow.
Joined Jul 2009
1,215 Posts | 0+
Deer Park, Alabama
The garlic is the only reason thing reason I know that my flies left. I use nothing else. I have not seen a deer fly or horse fly in quite some time. They may come back with a vengence but for now I am fly free.
I think the garlic acts to prevent fly breeding in the deer droppings. This breaks the fly cycle and knocks the numbers down fairly quickly, noticeable after just a couple weeks. There are chemical controls that do the same thing, in the form of salt or mineral blocks for licking for one, that contain a chemical that kills the fly larva and prevent fly breeding in the droppings.
The Epps fly trap is definitely getting the horse flies as well as some others. The Sterling international rescue fly traps, bags with fly bait fill right up with flies of all sorts and some other bugs that are not flies also. We disturb fresh manure piles every few days with a homemade drag, this controls horn flies.
I should probably mention we are an organic farm, hence the lack of fly sprays, etc. But we do see very good results with the methods we use. I can't really compare it to chemical controls though because we've never used them and don't know how they work.
The Epps fly trap is definitely getting the horse flies as well as some others. The Sterling international rescue fly traps, bags with fly bait fill right up with flies of all sorts and some other bugs that are not flies also. We disturb fresh manure piles every few days with a homemade drag, this controls horn flies.
I should probably mention we are an organic farm, hence the lack of fly sprays, etc. But we do see very good results with the methods we use. I can't really compare it to chemical controls though because we've never used them and don't know how they work.
Joined Apr 2009
702 Posts | 0+
Marquez, TX
Predator3 said:
haha
Unfortunately we have a major shortage of that down here I read someone talking about putting garlic in there feed here on this forum and decided to try it. I had the CO-OP mix 7 lbs of garlic to every ton of feed for me and I got to tell you, it's worked awesome! I couldn't believe how well it actually worked. It's like the flies dissappeared. When I was weaning fawns I was mixing some record rack with calf manna in the snack trough and flies were swarming around it, but the feeder with the garlic in the pellets didn't have any flies around it. So in my opinion it works...
Predator, how much snow per ton of feed do you use?
I am in southern Ohio and flies have disappeared without me doing anything to deter the fly cycle. I wonder how much of our experience with fly reduction is due to the weather change. I do like what some of you say garlic is doing for you so next spring I too will see about having garlic mixed in with the feed.
I am in southern Ohio and flies have disappeared without me doing anything to deter the fly cycle.
I wonder how much of our experience with fly reduction is due to the weather change. I do like what some of you say garlic is doing for you so next spring I too will see about having garlic mixed in with the feed.
Joined May 2009
2,369 Posts | 0+
Chillicothe, Missouri
yeah we add garlic to our feed starting about may so it is in thier system by the time the #@$!$!!%% flies start getting bad we use 8# per ton thru sept and have had pretty good luck with it the deer do seem to pull back on te feed at first but seem to get used to it. Good luck!
NYDoe said:
I also bought an EPPS fly trap. Do you feel like you remove up to 1 lb of fly bodies per day as advertised? I am anxious to get this thing installed this spring, and if it looks easy enough to duplicate, I'm going to try to build my own. I have plenty of thick, black plastic used for fence covering that I could use.
Joined Jun 2010
508 Posts | 0+
Fogelsville, PA
Majestic Whitetails said:
same here we just add it to shopping cart when we do groceries. In the spice isle.
Joined Jun 2010
508 Posts | 0+
Fogelsville, PA