Shooo Fly!

One of my favorite after-dinner things to do on a summer evening
is to take a chair into the donkey pen and sit with the donkeys as the cool of nighttime
settles over us.


You've gotta love donkey kisses....these gals are very affectionate!


 Whe I first arrived in their yard,
I was greeted by both gals in their fly masks.
"Hello Chloe!"....


"Daphne, what happened to your fly mask?  Was Chloe giving you a makeover again?"


There is no "cool" in our evenings of late, however.
We are in the midst of a heat wave with extremely high humidity.
The farm is a sauna right now.


The equines spend the hottest part of the day inside the barn...
all five horses crammed into one stall...
napping in front of the fan.

The donkeys don't seem to mind the heat at all,
and prefer to stand in the blistering sun over seeking shelter in the shade.
What does bother them, however, are the flies.


Flies are the bane of equines' existence in the summer.
And if you have horses, then you know that there just are no great fly sprays.

I have found, though, that this fly spray seems to work the best for us.
It might be the citronella scent,
but covering the horses with this spray keeps the flies off for a while.


Chloe is quite tolerant of my spraying...
almost as if she knows the fly spray keeps the flies off.


Daphne, on the other hand, will have nothing to do with it.
She takes a stand at the opposite side of the dry lot,
and will not come back over to me.


The only way I can cover her is to wet a rag with the fly spray and wipe her down
with the rag.  
Persnickety gal!

I cannot, for the life of me, think of one good thing that flies do for the farm.
And if there was just one thing that I could change about life on the farm...
it would be to get rid of the flies!
(For the sake of my four legged friends)


Comments

Stephane said…
The flies are bad this year. One of my horses has to be wiped down, she won't have anything to do with being sprayed.
jaz@octoberfarm said…
flies supposedly hate the smell of listerine. have you tried wiping them down with it? same weather here and it is awful! i need fall!
I agree! They are such pests to my dog. They love manure but I dont know what part they play other than landing on it and then landing on you... Eeewww
Flies are just plain nasty. If a fly happens to come into the house, I won't rest until I kill it. The donkey's are so sweet looking.
vlb5757 said…
Since I know nothing about flies, how long does the "season" last for them to bother the farm animals? I know they are pesky around here coming in and out of the house and they carry diseases but that's about it.
Unknown said…
What a sweet time with your even sweeter gals! LOve that first shot of you!
Junebug said…
Yuck, @&#%# - Hate flies!! They have no earthly good except to pester animals and humans!

I'm taking a little break from blogging this summer, somehow I got myself overloaded! But I never fail to check in every morning for my favorite tales of the tails!!! Hugs!
This N That said…
I had to copy that first shot for my files..I'm sure the donkeys love the time that you spend with them..Not too many flies around here..I think I would rather have them than the mosquitoes.
Kris said…
I tried the Pinterest thing, a large ziplock baggie of water and 4 pennies, to keep the flies away. I am not so sure about that? I used to use that spray for my dogs ears in the summer. The flies would bite and make their ears bleed!!!
Stay cool.
xo Kris
Suzan said…
I think flies were once mini dinosaurs!! They are EVERYWHERE! I remember growing up and visiting my Aunt Lucy's pig farm in Tennessee and my Grandparents farm in So. Indiana and both had those things that were sticky like honey that would hang down in all the barns about a 3 ft. long and the flies would become stuck to the sticky thing. Yulk!! Always wondered how effective this method was? But then - they were always filled with dead flies.
Mary Ann said…
I'm with you, and I'm tired of them biting ME, too!
cricketjett said…
I find this home made receipe on Russ-Stick Acres blog for horse fly spray:
1/3 Listerine (must be Lister, not the green mouthwash)
1/3 Avon "Skin so Soft originial bath oil
1/3 Apple Vinegar
I haven't tried it yet, as I am having problems finding a dependable Avon rep.
jaz@octoberfarm mentioned Listerine, so maybe it would work.
Really enjoy visiting with you daily
Lynne said…
I feel for your horses, donkeys and ALL . . . Sweltering here . . . maybe I need to be sprayed with your fly spray so I can ride my bike. It is ATTACK CITY each time I ride. Not fun!
Susannah said…
I detest flies. I hated to see them on our horses! I hate them biting me, too!!!!!!
I wish I could too- I can't stand seeing my horses covered up with flies. We bought a fly mask for our elder mare and twice now she has somehow pulled the durn thing off.
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Have a grea weekend dear

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