Feeding Facts

FLY CONTROL

USING FEED-THROUGH GROWTH REGULATORS

BY JIMMY PARKER

Warm weather is here along with green grass and sunshine. With that will come all the insect pests that many farmers dread. In livestock areas, flies are a constant source of trouble in the summer months and can be a costly pest in many cow herds. There are several species of flies that can have a negative impact on the cow herd and on the cattleman’s bottom line.

Some spread disease by feeding on the cattle’s blood. Others spread diseases by traveling from animal to animal and feeding on things like natural secretions around the eyes, noses and mouths of cattle.

There are many kinds of flies including horn flies, face flies, deer flies, horse flies, stable flies, heel flies and house flies. Two of the most economically important ones would be horn flies and face flies and while they tend to feed and act differently in some ways, fortunately they both have similar life cycles which helps in controlling them with feed-through methods.

Horn flies are considered to be the most economically damaging and many experts believe they cause over a billion dollars in damages to the American cow herd each year. Those damages come from many things such as spread of diseases, contributing to mastitis, and just simple weight loss from irritation and less time spent grazing. Face flies are thought to spread pinkeye and all the associated problems that arise with pinkeye can be costly.

Fortunately, feed-through control products work well on both these flies because both lay eggs in cow manure and are vulnerable to insect growth regulators and oral larvicides. Feeds or mineral supplements that contain products such as Altosid or Clarifly tend to work well with both of these flies. These products prevent the fly’s life cycle from completing itself by stopping the larvae as they try to develop in the manure itself. This in turn cuts down on the number of flies as the mature flies die off and there are few young flies to replace them.

The insect growth regulators tend to work best if your animals are not close to other animals or if your neighbors that have livestock are using similar control methods. Horn flies tend to not travel far at all while face flies can travel a couple of miles in the right situations.

It is important to understand that the feed-through insect growth regulators are not quick fixes and may take a month or so to show effectiveness and if a fast fix is needed, then other methods or control should be used or at least added alongside the insect growth regulators. Fly tags, fly sprays and some pour-ons work really well. Insect growth regulators are really helpful when you are using the other methods.

One important recommendation that adds to the efficacy of insect growth regulators is to make sure that they are available and being consumed at least one month before flies typically emerge and one month after a killing frost. By feeding these products early in the season, the fly population remains lower and it is easier to control the population as time goes on.

So starting early and making sure that your animals don’t miss doses of the insect growth regulators are key factors in successful control of flies. Using other methods such as sprays and fly tags can also be of great value. Trying to isolate your animals and talking to neighbors with cattle that share a fence line is an important tool. Anything you can do to keep those fly populations to a minimum will add a substantial number of dollars to your bottom line. Start today and feed the insect growth regulators all summer and fall and there will be more dollars on your bottom line when payday does roll around.

HORN FLIES ARE CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST ECONOMICALLY DAMAGING AND MANY EXPERTS BELIEVE THEY CAUSE OVER A BILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES TO THE AMERICAN COW HERD EACH YEAR.