# Mosquitoes and Gnats



## Idahodreamer (Sep 19, 2009)

Hey everybody, it's Talita. 
We've successfully moved to SD--- goatless. Miraculously, the day before we moved, all three of my goats sold. I'm still puzzling over how that happened :whatgoat: . And I am waiting to hear from one of the seller's to see how Nelly's kids are doing.... 
Anyhoo, We have mosquitoes and gnats here LIKE MAD. You cannot step outside without getting atleast ten bites. 
I am hoping to get some more goats ( :roll: ) later this year and early spring, but unless I can find someway to keep these -demons- off my goats, I don' t wanna put my babies through this. . . Any safe mosquito and gnat repellants? Anything I can put in the barn to keep the mosquitoes out? They live in the tall grass and if you step across the lawn a whole cloud of them will come upward to attack your face it's crazy!!! 
I miss Idaho! LOL :laugh:


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

Congrats on the move. Sorry about the bugs. We have them too. Here's what I do.
1) Chickens they love bugs. Guniess are better if you can stand them. I can't that why I use chickens. (Blue orpingtons are pretty and very friendly)

2) Skin So Soft wiped on or mixed with water and sprayed on. (plus they smell good and are so shiny.)

3) Garlic. I use Garlic Barrier oral once a month plus sprinkle garlic powder on the food. Good for internal pests too. (added bonus I have never lost a single goat or sheep to vampires or a chupacobra. ) :leap: 

Good luck and don't give up goats because of some bugs. Go to war with the little pests. If you need some good chicken breeds, let me know. We have had just about every breed over the years.

Gina


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Good to hear from you! You can use fly spray from a horse tack or feed store. It's safe for the goats and repels very well. If you just put some of that on them daily that should really help keep them off. Other than that I can't really think of anything else. Just be sure to keep any water containers cleaned out daily so they don't lay eggs and produce more. Good suggestions above.


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## pennylullabelle (Nov 22, 2009)

Lady bugs  I get a bucket of them regularly. They eat the gnats and compete with the mosquitoes so we don't see many of them. I also do some other stuff like use all small water buckets (5 gallon buckets from Home Depot) in all my pens because then there is never long standing water, but they are filled 2x a day. Horses have 40 gallon buckets so I add some horse electrolyte mix because it has salt which changes the surface structure of the water breaking the "level" the squitos land and lay on. By eliminating breeding I cut down big time on the bugs. But of course if you have neighbors near by or bodies of water this won't help much! I'm also a fly-predators person. Love those, get them 6 months out of the year. Since all my goats are dairy I like to find ways to keep bug numbers down without having to use poisons or sprays. Last thing I wanna do is get fly spray (I do have the stuff for horses for when bugs get out on control inbetween lady bug and fly predator orders) on their udders and not get every trace off then get it in the milk!


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

I know exactly what you mean, Talitha. I live near swamp/wetlands and when we have skeeter hatches I pretty much can't go outside unless I have every inch of my body covered with loose fitting clothing. I wear mosquito netting around my face. When I am walking around there will be, like, 50 mosquitos climbing around on net in front of my face...when I look down I can see them swarming my body.

We cut down as much of the tall grass as possible. I use organic "Bite Blocker Extreme" repellent on the goats with good results...when we are having a really bad hatch NO repellent is very effective so the goats just stay inside most of the day. If you point a fan on them in the barn that will keep the bugs away better than anything else.


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

I forgot to mention that I also never shave my goats in the summer...the extra hair helps protect from the bugs as well.


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## bheila (Jan 10, 2009)

I also use the horse spray Kylee's talking about...works great! My husband's from Minnesota and said the only place in the summer you could go without mosquitoes around was the goat barn. They apparently don't like the urine. I can a test to this, I go in the goats shed every night to hang out and there's no mosquitoes.


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## turtlebutte goats (Nov 23, 2008)

Where is SD do you live? I think I am the only other person on here from SD! With this being a very wet year here, there are more mosquitos than ever, however I do not have any problem with them on the goats. We do not treat them with anything. I do have alot of flies and we hang ziploc bags 1/2 full of water from the rafters in the goat shed near the door. For whatever reason, flies dont like the clear bags with water. We still get some flies, but not like the barn or chicken coop or corrals when the cattle are close by.

Wecome to the best place to live!!!


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

Ducks will cut way down on the skeeter population. Also copper sulfate in the water troughs kill skeeters and algae plus provide copper for the goats. I put 1teasp per 5 gal capacity every couple of weeks. Mine has a float valve.


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

Oh. almost forgot. Apple cider vinegar in the water buckets. It keeps down green slime and skitters.  

Gina


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## Idahodreamer (Sep 19, 2009)

Thanks everyone!!! I appreciate this sooo much!!! All of your ideas are wonderful and I can't wait to try them out! 
We're renting right now and waiting for an acreage with a barn on it to pop up. So excited!!! 
Turtlebutte, why do you think that the mosquitoes are staying off the goats? Come to think of it, back in ID, I'd be smacking and waving and the only things my goats would bite at were flies . . . . no skeeters. . . . BTW, We're over by Mitchell, SD. 
Can't wait to get started again.  :stars:


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## turtlebutte goats (Nov 23, 2008)

I am not sure, however this is the 2nd summer I have had goats and the bugs dont bother them at all. Only the barn swallows!!!!! I am south of Winner, so about 2.5 hours southwest of you. Good luck finding a place to live, esp without water surrounding it!


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

I read in a horse magazine that white horses have less bug issues. Fly's and skitter's prefer dark colored animals. Anyone notice this with light vs dark colored goats? onder: Maybe we should study our herds. Mine are dark with 2 being red and white. I know Romeo has the most dislike of anything that flies or buzzes. He does a goat bug out dance. :laugh: He is such a big goof.


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## LouLou (Mar 12, 2009)

What a timely topic! My two does just had babies, 10 days apart, and we'd have LOTS of mosquitoes and I was worried about them. I bought some spray at Murdock's, cleaned out their stalls of food, covered food/water containers, and sprayed everything - now I'll spray them, too, since I know it's safe. I also love garlic and will use that, as well as the Skin-so-Soft method (which I've used on myself). Thanks. P.S. Just saw the thing about dark colored as opposed to light colored goats - mine are white and the mosquitoes just seem to LOVE them  :laugh:


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

mrs. lam said:


> I read in a horse magazine that white horses have less bug issues. Fly's and skitter's prefer dark colored animals. Anyone notice this with light vs dark colored goats? onder: Maybe we should study our herds. Mine are dark with 2 being red and white. I know Romeo has the most dislike of anything that flies or buzzes. He does a goat bug out dance. :laugh: He is such a big goof.


I have one white goat and I have to say that she gets pestered considerably less than the brown/black goats do. The others will have clouds around them and will be running back to the barn frantically and she'll have just a few buzzing around her and looks at the others like they are crazy.


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## hphorses (Feb 16, 2010)

The mosquitoes are so bad her right now that in the evening all you can hear is buzzing and I am NOT joking.. Our herd of mares were simply walking and honestly close to loosing their minds over it.. The expensive fly sprays for horses you guys are talking about are only half working, the mosquitoes just don't seem to care. 

So we have taken desperate measures and now keep a smudge going in both the goat pasture and the broodmare pasture. It is amazing how fast they learn that laying in/near that smoke that the bugs don't get them. All around the smudge area all you can hear is buzzing and if you step out you are literally swarmed with mosquitoes. 

I have never wore OFF until this year, I simply can't take it!!! I don't remember having this many mosquitoe bites since I was a child!!!

Tara


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

LouLou,
Get a black goat. The white ones will love you for it. :laugh: 

What and where do you get a smudge pot? Does anyone use a sulpher block ?

Gina


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## hphorses (Feb 16, 2010)

Oh interesting, we use Sulfur blocks for the horses... can goats have them too??? never thought of that!

and Mrs. lam we are using a old washer drum as it has little holes all the way around for the smudge to breath... as in clothes washer.... works really well!

Tara


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

hphorses,

Whats a smudge? where do you get it?


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## hphorses (Feb 16, 2010)

it's just a fire that isn't really burning, just smoking... we use old straw get a good fire going then put wet straw on top of it to make it smoke.

Tara


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## Chrissienewatgoats (Jun 29, 2014)

does this work with gnats? The apple cidar vinagar? there has been a lot of feet stomping, and I cleaned the pen yesterday and there were a ton of gnats!!!! It has been a wet ohio!


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## BTRT1 (Jun 12, 2014)

So something like an equine bug spray is safe? We are in Northern Ontario and bugs are dreadful this year and bringing home a mama and two one week old bucklings this week.


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