[WaltDisneyWorld]

Hello, my Ryelands were sprayed against flystrike with Crovect approximately a month ago. They are due to have their fleeces removed hopefully within the next week if the shearer can get to us. My question is will they be ok to use for spinning or will the chemical still be active? Also the fleeces I stored last year (we did not use Crovect last year) in an old duvet, can they still be spun or have I left it too late. I have never spun before but always wanted to just never found the time to get started, any advice would be very much appreciated 

[Fleecewife]

The advice given by the British Coloured Sheep Breeders Association and others is not to apply Crovect or any other product to the fleece within three months before shearing.  This is for the safety of the shearer, the wool handler and the craft worker, all of whom will be in close contact with either a lot of fleeces, or one fleece over a long period.  If you are sending your fleeces off for mill spinning then you have to sign a form to say that you have not applied Crovect or similar within 3 months - not only for the mill workers health but also because the scouring water will contaminate watercourses.
Your fleece will be for your own use, so the risk is yours and you will need to make your own decision.
It would be a good idea for you to contact the manufacturers of Crovect and ask them whether the product will be washed off with detergent, and whether it will degrade on stored fleeces. I'm sorry but I don't know the answers to those questions as I don't use Crovect on sheep to be shorn until after shearing.  If a sheep does need Crovect in that time then I would discard the fleece.
Your stored fleeces should be ok - I say should because it depends on just how they have been stored.  The danger is moth so open the duvet cover outside and see if anything flies out.  If you dagged your fleeces before storing they will otherwise be ok to spin, although you will want to wash them first as year old fleece isn't as lovely as freshly shorn.

Do have a go at spinning - it is wonderful to use an otherwise wasted product from your sheep enterprise, and you can do it on whatever scale suits you.  I am what I call a 'country spinner' - I don't enter competitions or try to spin perfect yarn, but I spin plenty to knit work jumpers and socks for me and my OH and one or two other things too.

[Rosemary]

What do you use to prevent flystrike before shearing?

[Fleecewife]

Nothing.  We spray the lambs with Crovect sometime in May, depending on the weather.  We crutch older sheep at the same time and don't let any of our sheep get too daggy at any stage.  I watch all the sheep closely until we can get them shorn - we have done all the tups which are across the road so more difficult to observe, so that is one worry out of the way.  Next will be the ewe hoggs with their big fleeces - they have been well dagged.  Last will be the ewes which mostly don't seem so bothered with flies, although this year throughout May it was so windy here that we didn't see a single fly.  It has turned warmer now hence the urgency to work our way through all the shearing as quickly as we can.  If an adult sheep did show signs of strike we would bring it in and have a look - if it needed to be sprayed then we would do that and just discard the fleece as unuseable, but we haven't had to do that yet.
I can see that it would be a problem if you have to wait for a shearer to come to you, and the weather has been hot and humid.  What do you use?

[Rosemary]

Crovect. Did them just over 6 weeks ago. We've never done the lambs and have never had a problem with them because they have clean bums and no fleece to speak of. We have had one animal with fly strike each year (not the same animal) if we haven't sprayed in early spring. We usually do them when they are turned out after lambing and that does them until shearing. After that, we've never had a problem.

I suspect we're not dagging them properly ( a side issue for Saturday maybe). Again I do them when they first go out with their lambs from the lambing pens but maybe I don't take enough off.

[Fleecewife]

It also depends on the fleece type.  When I had my flock of special fleece wethers and their fleecey dams, fly strike was always more of a worry and of course their fleeces were specifically for selling for craft work so had to be perfect.  The worst fly strike we have ever had was on a lamb with an extraordinarily densely packed fine fleece - I had to remove just about all of it, hence that we now spray them all early.  Not OHs favourite subject but I will ask him to cover dagging too, Rosemary

[WaltDisneyWorld]

Thank you Fleecewife for your reply. I will discard this years fleeces. I try to be as organic with all our animals as possible and buy alot of the Barrier range. This was applied to the sheep last year but I suspect either I did not use enough of the product or did not reapply again early enough but one of our girls had a bad case of strike. This year one of our lambs had flystrike so we dagged her, applied Frontline to kill any maggots and then used the Barrier product and she has been fine. However as our sheep are so woolly and I was worried about last years problem we decided to give Crovect a go.

I will have a look at the stored fleeces and see if I can use them. Thank you again for all your advice.

[SallyintNorth]

Is Vetrazin as bad for spinners?  I think environmentally it's supposed to be less harmful than Crovect.

[Fleecewife]

I think Vetrazin is now off the market, isn't it?  But all these products have a real action, so prolonged exposure to any of them could be harmful, whether it be for a wool sorter handling thousands of fleeces a day, or a spinner handling one for several weeks.  Most people would probably be ok but some people either already have, or develop, a sensitivity to whatever product.  Personally I would not want to handle any fleece which had any product applied, except perhaps the fly deterrent types which are innocuous.

[Rosemary]

It's a hard one - fly strike is so horrible but, on the other hand, I do want the fleeces to be used.

[Fleecewife]

It's a hard one - fly strike is so horrible but, on the other hand, I do want the fleeces to be used.

It is hard but of course the sheeps welfare comes first - if they need to be protected before they are shorn then they must be protected.  The fleece is a bonus   and of course if it's struck then you would have to throw it out anyway - finding maggots when you are spinning would be horrible 

[morri2]

I've just starting using Neem Oil as a repellant on my Bowmonts this year (see previous thread on alternatives to chemicals)  As these are superfine fleeces the last thing I want is to use anything nasty on them as they will be sold for working with.  However, I was going to ask, on the previous thread mentioned above, if there was either anything other than neem oil which would be a suitable fly repellant, or a brand of neem oil which doesn't smell so damned awful!!!!  Oh boy, does this stuff stink. I felt quite sick after i'd finished applying it for the first time.  It smells like a mix of garlic, onions and peanut oil.  Then again, I suppose it has to be pungent to keep the flies away.  Can anyone suggest something else

[Blackbird]

Hi all, I thought I'd raise this one again in case anyone else's sheep had been shorn after applying Crovect. My tiny flock of 6 sheep has been shorn, unexpectedly early, a couple of weeks after I applied Crovect. I wrote to the manufacturers, Elanco  asking  if the chemical would wear off during storage, or if it would wash out with detergent and received the following reply, which I thought was pretty helpful:

"Thank you for your enquiry regarding Crovect.
 
Unfortunately, all our work on the breakdown of cypermethrin has been on the animal and we don’t have any data on the breakdown once the wool is stored.  When the product is on the animal it is broken down by sunlight, rainfall, oxidation, dilution by wool growth etc.  Some of these, depending on the way the wool is stored, will not be present once the fleece is removed - wool growth will obviously not occur.
 
The active ingredient in Crovect, cypermethrin, is bound to the lanolin (wool grease) in the wool and so washing with detergent would remove it.  However, operator safety and the discharge of the washings would have to be taken into consideration and any regulations adhered to. 
 
It may be worth contacting the wool processers as they may have more information on the washing of fleeces.  I am sorry we don’t have all the information you require but hopefully this is of some help.
 
If you have any further questions please contact me by emailing [email protected] or call 01256 353131 choosing option one for technical services followed by option two for the farm team."

Hope this is helpful - I will carefully wash my fleeces, wearing adequate protection and ensuring the rinsate doesn't go near watercourses/public drain etc.

[Fleecewife]

Yes, that is interesting to have a more scientific version of why and how the problem arises, so we can make up our own minds as to what to do.  Ultimately, the decision as to whether the fleece is spun/felted/whatever with recent Crovect on is up to the person doing the work, shearing, washing and spinning.  We get around it by not using Crovect after the autumn flies have gone right up until shearing.  Should a sheep be struck before we shear it, then I would discard that fleece, but I am in the position of having more fleeces than I can possibly ever use myself.  Because we shear our own sheep we don't have to wait on a shearer, so in fact, fingers crossed, we've not had strike for a very long time.  We use Crovect on the lambs in mid May as they are most likely to have a problem.
I hate using chemicals, but this is one for which we make an exception, as fly strike can be so awful.

[Lesley Silvester]

Your stored fleeces should be ok - I say should because it depends on just how they have been stored.  The danger is moth so open the duvet cover outside and see if anything flies out.  If you dagged your fleeces before storing they will otherwise be ok to spin, although you will want to wash them first as year old fleece isn't as lovely as freshly shorn.

The fleece I am spinning atm has been in my loft for six years and wasn't skirted or treated in any way before it went up there. I prefer to spin in the grease which is what I am doing and it's lovely to spin. I have no doubt that some of the fleeces I have up there will be composted but it's certainly worth having a good look at them.


I do agree that you should give spinning a go. Is there a group near you so someone can start you off?