The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: shearling on April 10, 2011, 09:43:57 am

Title: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: shearling on April 10, 2011, 09:43:57 am

Hello, I am hoping to use the wool from my Portlands to knit or felt. I have read that some of the spray preparations either need to be applied at a specific time before shearing - or else the wool cannot be effectively used. Has anyone got a suggestion for whcih sort of product will allow me to use the wool, but also keep my lovellies safe and sound?

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: supplies for smallholders on April 10, 2011, 10:52:49 am

Hi,

Try Blowfly Repel - a non chemical product, and feedback we have had says it is very effective.

Thanks

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: jaykay on April 10, 2011, 01:13:27 pm

We use Crovect, which is a 'spot on' - it goes onto the skin, not the wool (ie part the wool when applying), and has been very effective against flies but doesn't affect the wool.

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: VSS on April 10, 2011, 01:31:49 pm

You could use cooper spot-on. This applied directly to the skin, usually in the middle of the back. It is very effective, and shouldn't affect the wool, but will only give blowfly cover for around four weeks.

Other pour-ons, which work by binding with the grease in the wool, give longer cover.

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: woollyval on April 10, 2011, 09:15:56 pm

Actually none of the pour ons will 'affect' the wool.....however all the above mentioned WILL affect the environment and the shearer if not used with care before shearing!
It is not right practice to part the wool to apply crovect :o It should be applied in a wide sweep along the back and from hock to hock in an ark including the top of the tail......this is how all of the flystrike preventers should be used.
Spot on should be just that...put on as a spot.
Some of these preparations are synthetic pyrethroids, which if they get into water courses are fatal to all aquatic life :o :o ....and the problem is if you wash these by hand and the washing water goes down the drain, it will end up one way or another in a water course! Specialist scouring plants have their own systems for effluent.

So.....to reiterate.....its not the wool that will be affected but the water it is washed in.....SO.....follow the withdrawl times.....please :wave:

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: jaykay on April 11, 2011, 08:12:40 am

Our experience of using Crovect this way is that even if the flies get into the fleece, once they get down to the skin they don't eat into it. We part the wool and put a pool of the Crovect against the skin at the back of their neck and then in several places along the spine including the base of the tail.

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: shearling on April 11, 2011, 09:07:06 am

Ah Thank you Wooly Shepherd. Now I get it. Any thoughts about which spot-on or spray over is best?

Title: Re: what to use to spray to avoid flystrike but not spoil the wool
Post by: woollyval on April 11, 2011, 11:40:26 am

Jaykay....they will not eat into the skin if you FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!! which are to apply in a broad sweep across the fleece.....this is really important and I wish people would realise instructions are there for a reason.....end of lecture ;)