Natural Way to Help Rid Flies From Your Barn

Sometimes you can get a product for one purpose then find out it has a side benefit to it. That is what I found when I put the horses at the rescue I run on Natural Occurring Mineral Sources (NOMS) produced by Advanced Biological Concepts.

NOMS is an all natural mix containing: diatomaceous earth, Lactobacillus Acidolphilus, sodium bentonite, garlic, lemon grass, parsley, horseradish, and pumpkin seeds,. All of these ingredients are known to help with worms, which is the exact purpose of this mix. The purpose is not to kill the worms, but to make the intestines an unfriendly environment for them.

We haven't done any fecal counts on the horses to see if the NOMS is taking care of the worms. They still get wormed on a rotational schedule whether on the NOMS or off.

But we continue with feeding the NOMS as it has greatly reduced the fly population in the barn.

The first year on our new property, the flies weren't too bad. But subsequent years they got progressively worse especially once a neighbor brought in cattle. As soon as the heat begins rising in April, here come the flies. Once monsoons (summer rains) hit, they got even worse. No amount of fly spray helped, or if it did the flies quickly became immune to it. Fly traps caught thousands of flies, but more always came to take their place.

This year, once again as April rolled around, the flies came out. We started the horses on the NOMS around the same time and within two weeks noticed a reduction in the flies which steadily continued as the weeks wore on. We wondered if it was a fluke, but appreciated the respite from the flies all the same.

We let it go too long before ordering a new bag of NOMS and noticed an upsurge in the fly population. After getting the new order, all the horses were back on the NOMS and in less than two weeks the fly population decreased once again.

Each time a new horse comes into the barn, there is a slight increase in the flies until the horse has been on the NOMS for at least two weeks.

Some horses are picky about the taste at first. One horse also did not care for the white color of it. I think it reminded him of medications put on his food. He'd just stand and snort at it. We mixed it into his grain so he couldn't see the color, at which point he'd eat it with no problem.

The only thing I dislike about the NOMS is that it is a fine white powder that sticks to just about everything. When feeding it is best to wet their food so the NOMS sticks to it and doesn't just blow out of the tub or stick to the tub instead of them eating it. It may have to be mixed into the feed until the horse gets used to it.

After seeing the difference in the fly population in the barn this year, I never want to go through another summer without the NOMS. I'm especially grateful to not have the stinky fly traps hanging around the barn and property!