Flystrike, natural prevention?

[JohnGalway]

Temperatures here are on the up, got a touch of sunburn today and the farmers tan is coming along nicely!

With this in mind, seeing instances of strike appearing on social media, are there natural options for preventing and treating flystrike in sheep?

I'd prefer to avoid clik, vector and the likes. Both on possible negative effects on other insects and from a cost/labour pov.

I am, slowly, removing crutches (the medical kind) from the flock to hopefully pick out the more adaptable individuals in the flock.

 

[Cowlife]

I tried everything I could think of last year to keep flies off heifers. Garlic, fly barrels all a waste of time. Had to use loads of pour on and spray udders with dip with battles in it. Result no lost quarters.
It was one of the worst summers I remember for flies and I know loads of people had heifers ruined.

 

[Cowlife]

Meant to say the fly barrels were catching the blue bottle type flies which bother sheep but no use for biting flies. Whether they d catch enough I don't know

 

[Cowlife]

I tried everything I could think of last year to keep flies off heifers. Garlic, fly barrels all a waste of time. Had to use loads of pour on and spray udders with dip with battles in it. Result no lost quarters.
It was one of the worst summers I remember for flies and I know loads of people had heifers ruined.

Edit. I had to spray daily.
I welcome easier options

 

[Gulli]

Hair sheep/ shedders although they do still get strike occasionally.

Lower stocking rate does wonders

Shear early and then shear later on as well?

I would think that regular moves must have some effect as flies don't travel far and tend to congregate where the ewes shelter, if they are only there for a day or two and then moved on somewhere else that must have some effect on exposure.

Realise not all of these will work for where you are, just throwing some ideas out

 

[BeReyt]

Having a good habitat for birds would be a long term solution. Which species would control flies the best, swallows?

Shearing this time of year has worked for me.
Stockholm Tar is marvellous!

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Meant to say the fly barrels were catching the blue bottle type flies which bother sheep but no use for biting flies. Whether they d catch enough I don't know

Apparently it is green bottles which cause fly strike. I have heard of fly baits being used but know nothing about them.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

On a similar note, any natural ways of overcoming ticks?
We seem to have a high tick challenge this year with the sheep. Maybe in part from the mild winter, but also got a large number of deer around.
About to go in with the chemicals, but open to suggestions for alternative control measures.

 

[Nick Adams]

I shear in June and use garlic salt buckets. Keeps the issue manageable with spot treatments.

 

[Gulli]

On a similar note, any natural ways of overcoming ticks?
We seem to have a high tick challenge this year with the sheep. Maybe in part from the mild winter, but also got a large number of deer around.
About to go in with the chemicals, but open to suggestions for alternative control measures.

Ticks need blood at every stage of their life cycle. So i assume the only way is to remove any host animals for a year to break up their reproduction cycle. Easier said than done though

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Ticks need blood at every stage of their life cycle. So i assume the only way is to remove any host animals for a year to break up their reproduction cycle. Easier said than done though

Especially when theres loads of deer wondering around.

 

[Gulli]

Especially when theres loads of deer wondering around.

Even if you cleared the deer out they would latch on to most other animals passing through, depending on the type of tick.

If it makes you feel any better most ticks die before finding a host so it could be worse

 

[Wooly]

Ticks only need to feed once every four years.

I used cydectin injection on my ewes one year. That got rid of the tick problem for 2 years, but they have come back again this year on our permenant pasture.

As for fly strike, it is noticable on our farm that the same ewes get it every year. Easier to cull them, as I try not to use fly products on our ewes. (They graze windy marsh pasture, so no trees and not many flies)

 

[Guleesh]

Trying to reduce insecticide usage here too. We're in a sheep scab area here so it would be grossly negligent not to treat for that- we use cydectin that gives 100 days cover but we can generally hold off treatment until autumn when the ewes go out to common grazing, so the toxic manure they're leaving behind is spread thinly over a very large area. Planning to use Spot-on for lambs but not for ewes through till weaning, Also hoping to put off flystrike treatment until Weaning for the ewes -(they'll be back out on common grazing for a spell) as most cases seemed to be late on last year.

All the sheep will be carrying some ticks at the moment, as long as they're not completely covered in them it's not a big deal. A few sheep have had a little wool loss on their bellies to lice recently but seem to be unaffected and clearing up without intervention.

Everything is subject to change of course, we'll just monitor everything very closely and step in when necessary. I'm not too concerned about using insecticide treatments, i think as long as you're aware of how toxic your sheep have become after treatment then you can at least manage for it, rather than just blindly poisoning the same bit of ground every time, maybe staggering it so treated sheep are out on different areas than last treatment? The soil health will cope with it once in a while i believe, but can't be expected to bounce back time after time without some healthy manure to restore balance to soil ecosystem once in a while.

Worth noting that the contaminated manure isn't doing a great job of feeding the soil, and highlighting the importance of trampling grass, I suspect that a thriving soil ecosystem will easily survive the odd load of toxic manure, long enough for the toxicity level to drop low enough for it to be broken down, whereas on a field that's grazed bare all year round the soil life is relying 100% on that manure for the only soil feed it's going to receive.

I'm sceptical that 'natural' options for treating flystrike etc are going to be effective or reliable enough in any serious cases, cypermethrin, deltamethrin etc are the best tools in the box just now, for me it's a case of how best to implement them and understanding the full ramifications of doing so.

 

[Woolless]

Temperatures here are on the up, got a touch of sunburn today and the farmers tan is coming along nicely!

With this in mind, seeing instances of strike appearing on social media, are there natural options for preventing and treating flystrike in sheep?

I'd prefer to avoid clik, vector and the likes. Both on possible negative effects on other insects and from a cost/labour pov.

I am, slowly, removing crutches (the medical kind) from the flock to hopefully pick out the more adaptable individuals in the flock.

I would have to echo @Gulli, woolshedding sheep are the most obvious way to prevent strike without chemicals. Most decent flocks of Easycares would share your ethos of breeding to reduce work/inputs.

 

[Green farmer]

Have a few april born pet lambs at the side of my house. Passed by this evening to see one of them bad struck with maggots. Couldnt believe it. Ewes in field next to them are all treated with clik, but never saw lambs attacked as early as this before

 

[clod hopper]

When we started keeping sheep here few years back the first year had a lot of fly strike. For a few years after used pour on products and they worked well. Last year didn't use any at all and had no strike (touching wood now). What did notice was and maybe had nothing to with fly strike was a flock of mynha birds walking on the sheep. Just wondering if they were keeping flys off or eating fly eggs/magots. They are still walking the sheep now in winter. They do poo a little on the sheep which annoys me. When they eat blackberry and elderberry they have purple dots on the sheep!!
As I said might have nothing to do with fly strike at all

 

[Beekissed]

I thought the reason folks docked sheep was to prevent fly strike. So, that doesn't actually work?

I would think it would have to be a variety of things to prevent fly strike, from fly catching birds(swallow houses), to managing graze so butts don't get muddy to begin with, keeping the right type of sheep as well as culling within that type or breed, crutching if one keeps a wool breed, moving the sheep often, etc.

I've noticed the flies hang around the watering source a lot and attack the sheep when they come for water. Not sure what to do about that except fly traps. Anyone ever use one of these?

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[JohnGalway]

Dung beetles and fowl rooting through dung is another method, as you say there's a combination effort. I've noticed very few shitty arses this year, possibly a result of the prolonged dry spell, but I think the taller grass gave more fibre than constantly hunted fresh shoots.

 

[bendigeidfran]

Asked the question on peter's thread yesterday about fly control, i never considerd the effect pour on's have on dung living insects. Wool type does have a lot to do whith fly strike and where they are kept.
Hill type ewes very rearly get fly strike on their backs because of sweating, they usually have some on their tail if they are pissy or shity.
Ive got an A and B flock never given a blanket treatment for the ewes, any that get struck go to the B flock .
Being a shearing contractor iv'e seen plenty of struck ewes in my time, some farms are very prone to flies lots of trees and less wind.
Sheared replecement ewe lambs same time as ewes last year no treatment at all .
Time is what it cost me.
Got containers of pour on in shed just in case will only use if i have to.