Fly Predators

Shammy Davis · Postby **Shammy Davis** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:33 am

Spalding Labs is advertising Fly Predators, tiny beneficial insects that eat fly larvae. There are a couple of other companies that are also advertising them. Does anyone have any experience with this program? I'm somewhat familiar with the premise, but I'm not sure how to target such a program in a predominately agricultural area like ours. My thought is that our farm would get the flys from farms around us, even if the program was successful in our paddocks/pastures.

kezeli · Postby **kezeli** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:06 am

The benificial insects will multiply and take over if the conditions are right. BUT and it's a big but they need the right conditions and hopefuly are environmentaly friendly to the resident flora. A good example of a huge FUBAR would be Cudzou(sp?) and now the japanese lady beetle(they bite!!), the japanese beetle has all but desimanated our native lady beetles, aparently they eat them as well as aphids :roll:

xfactor fan · Postby **xfactor fan** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:53 pm

Start eary in the year, and work to get the Fly Predators population established. They should take care of your farm, and if the population is healthy, slowly spread out to the surounding fields. You may have to introduce the Fly predators a couple of times over the season.

doublete · Postby **doublete** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:29 pm

We get 4-5 shipments during the year. The premise is not that they push the flies elsewhere.. They eat the larvae, so the flies never exist.

As long as you don't *ahem* bury the fly predators with manure after you release them, they really do an excellent job.
Last year we forgot to order the last shipment. We WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. We couldn't stand the flies!!! We've been here 10 years, and that was the first time we hadn't used the predators and they were unbearable. Never again!

jumper77 · Postby **jumper77** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:32 pm

Anyone know if they help with horseflies?

griff · Postby **griff** » Sun May 07, 2006 6:19 pm

I used them when I was in San Antonia. I had to contral the flies or the neighbors could petition to have me remove my horses.

I receieved two to three times the recommended amount every month and never had a complaint for a neighbor. fact is I belive we had less flies with the horses than we had w/o the horses.

It's kind of like turnung 1,000 foxes loose in a 100 acre woods every month to control the rabbit population; i.e., it may be over kill but it really works.

griff