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Horse flies are pesky insets, large dark flies, and the most aggressive fly species. They received their name because they are known far and wide of horses and many other mammals. You can find Horse flies in rural and suburban areas near water bodies in breeding places where you can find mammal hosts.
Horse flies have visible compound eyes, and you can find them from 1 cm to 2.5 cm. No matter their type, each horse flies for life cycles: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Compared with a standard housefly, horse flies have blade-sharp mouth parts that can tear into flesh parts. This characteristic makes horse flies quite irritant. Horse flies are not only annoying, but they can also provide irritating bites on animal and human skin.
Why horse flies wander around pools?
Horse flies are quite often found near swimming pools, lakes, and beaches because they are pretty active in warm and humid conditions. The main reason why horse flies are water-attracted is that they need water conditions to lay eggs. As female horse flies are bitters, it is crucial to prevent them from wandering around swimming pools. They do not consume food during the night, just during the day. IF the temperature drops, there will be will horse fly attacks reduction.
What attracts horse flies?
Image source: Prestige Builders
- The first and primary source that causes horse flies is a swimming pool with a shiny surface, muddy stream areas, excessive moisture, and edges of ponds.
- Horseflies tend to chase dark-colored moving items that appear in a large amount in swimming pools.
- Both female and male horse flies feed on flower juice. Yet, the female horse flies are those who need to feed with blood to produce eggs later.
- Believe it or not, another thing that attracts horse flies is the carbon dioxide that every human and mammal breathes out on Earth. The CO2 in the swimming pools and ponds water is pretty warm, and it is why flies wander around them. Horse flies organisms have the sense to detect carbon dioxide around them.
- Horse flies are rather attracted to light reflections. It is one of the reasons why your pool is an excellent source for horseflies to find food.
Female horse flies are the biters, so it is essential to get rid of them. They can cause severe problems if there are people in the swimming pool. Now, let’s take a look at how to get rid of horse flies.
Horse flies traps
Horse flies traps are used quite often to reduce the fly population. They are disposable and free insecticide traps that people use for outdoor needs. This horse flies lures can trap more than 10,000 to 20.000 flies. There are large, hanging traps with moving parts designed to attract horseflies. You can also find sticky fly traps that you can hang all over the pool area. The horseflies traps can capture and kill the horse fly. When there is a need for new ones, replace the full traps.
Bag traps are one of the most effective ways to kill horseflies. They include two elements: a funnel that allows a horse fly to enter (not to escape) and a bag with food that will attract them. Many horse fly traps are available to find, or you can make them at homes such as disposable horseflies traps, coke bottle with rotten meat, umbrella fly trap, light trap, and many others.
Insecticides
The process to get rid of horse flies includes the use of the pesticide pyrethrin that is natural. You can find this concentrated pyrethrin insecticide from most agricultural or supply chemical firms. It is pretty safe to use, and you need to follow the instructions found on the pack.
You can kill the horse fly larva with pesticides. Yet, since they live near rivers and streams, putting pesticides in the water can pollute or even poison it. It is quite impossible to treat them in the larval stage.
As we already mentioned, a Pyrethrin pesticide is all-natural and very safe to use around pets and children. It is made from dried plant parts such as chrysanthemum. If you want to get rid of horseflies around your garden or another area, you should use organ chlorine and organophosphate to ensure that they will not develop a tolerance.
Remove Debris
Another way to get rid of horse flies is to remove any food or trash from the swimming pool area. Horseflies are attracted to garbage to feed, so maintaining your swimming pool clean and keeping the garbage bins away from it is crucial to get rid of horse flies.
Repellents
Homemade repellents for horseflies are pretty effective in the process of getting rid of horse flies. With an exact amount of oil and its fragrance, you will get rid of the horse fly. Moreover, the liquid dish soap is pretty helpful if you want to destroy horse fly breeds. Why? Because a dish soap includes borax as an ingredient, and the best part is that it is not harmful to animals and people.
If you decide to make horse flies repellents at home, you will need an empty spray bottle, a pint of white vinegar with a little bit of baby oil, and a dish soap squirt in it. Finally, you can shake the mix and spray it on horse flies. They will instantly die after spraying them.
Cover your Swimming Pool
Another critical way to protect yourself from horse flies is to cover your swimming pool as long as you can during June, July, and August. These months are when horseflies are pretty active and get rid of them, cover the pool after using it, or even do not use it, make sure it has a cover constantly during these months.
Clean Swimming Pool Area
If you want to get rid of horse flies, cleaning the swimming pool area of saturated vegetation is crucial. Horseflies adore moisturizing weeds and grass because this environment is the perfect ground for breeding, and it is a cold refuge when there are very hot periods during the day. Clean the grass new the pool area to ensure this place will not be a horse fly habit.
The bites by horse flies are pretty easy to recognize because they are different from other bites. They can be rather itchy, painful, and provide swollen and red skin, so treating horse flies bite is significant. Their bites can cause allergic reactions and bacterial infections if you do not treat them properly.
The first thing to do is to disinfect the area with water and soap. We recommend using vinegar and alcohol as a disinfectant and applying cold water to the infected area to reduce the hurt. If you are not able to disinfect the damaged area, then use saliva to cover the wound. Saliva is a clear liquid that contains Histatin protein. If the injury provokes a bacterial infection, then you should immediately contact a doctor.
If you are a victim of a horsefly bite, we provide you homemade care for the wound:
- Do not scratch the wound because you can increase the infection risk and make it worse
- Clean the wound with cotton wool and clean cloth with soap and warm water
- To reduce swelling and make the pain more manageable, use some ice pack and hold it from 10-15 minutes to affect.
- Do not improvise with other remedies other than soap and plain water.
Ending thoughts on how to get rid of horse flies around the swimming pool
We hope you understood how much are horse flies dangerous and threatening. Unfortunately, they spread many diseases such as filariasis, hog cholera, anaplasmosis, and anthrax. Yet taking the correct steps will provide you with the right problem solution. Take care of yourself!
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