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Chilliwack BC | What we've been doing the past few years and seems to work is wasp parasites. Here's how it works.
You get in the mail a package of wasp larvae and spread it out around the farm on areas of dry manure that will not be disturbed. As the wasps hatch they feast on fly larvae, thus causing the fly population to go down signifigantly. These are not the typical wasps that sting, you never see them. It is tough to see if it actually works because you can't physically see the wasps eating fly larvae but the fly population is really under control and if we didn't think it worked we wouldn't still be doing it after 4 years. We do it just in the hot fly season of probably 5 months, every 2 weeks. Each package costs about $70 CDN. This is for a dairy herd milking about 250 cows. They size the number of parasites to the size of your operation so the cost is proportional to the number of cows you have. We get ours though an Ag chem/fert dealer so I'm not sure where they come from. There was a company at the World Ag Expo in Tulare last year selling them though. Try Googling wasp fly parasites maybe.
If we figure the sticky tapes we used to put up and the time spent doing it we really find the parasites are worth it. We do still have a Mr. Sticky roll in the parlour though.
To treat pinkeye we would use Special Formula (mastitis drug). Works well.
Pierre | |
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Fly Control
