Product Review – Eco Vet Fly Spray
A few months ago, a representative from Eco Vet contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing their new fly spray. Of course, flies are the bane of any horse owner’s existence so I was pretty happy to take them on on their request! Wait a few months for flies to really start to get bad here… and we have today’s review.
First, here’s a little bit about what makes this fly spray unique from the folks at Eco Vet:
Research has shown that certain fatty acids act as insect attractants, while others are repellents. Ecovet uses a proprietary mixture of naturally occurring fatty acids that confuses and overwhelms the insect’s normal directional ability, so the insect is unable to locate your horse as its next victim. It’s like having a GPS system that is shouting confusing and conflicting directions at you … until you finally give up.
So that’s pretty interesting… but how does it work?
I would say my barn has a medium amount of flies, and a high a mount of mosquitos. Flies also seem to really like my horse. It’s not uncommon for me to get him out of the pasture with hive like bug bites and he also constantly has flies attacking his black legs despite me using a lot of fly spray.
The first important thing that I need to tell you about the Eco Vet fly spray is that it stinks. No really, it smells awful. Barn girls have chimed in with suggestions that it smells like…
- Old man hair gel
- A senior living center
- Coconut with a hint of butt hole
All jokes aside, it really is strong when you first spray it. If I inhale the spray, I tend to cough (good thing it’s all natural?). I warn people in the barn when I’m going to use it. It’s that stinky.
The instructions say to spray the horse’s lower body and legs, so I end up using less on Simon than I would with my normal fly spray. It has a bit of an oily consistency, but does make his coat and hooves shiny.
Now the important part, does it keep flies away? Yes. A thousand times yes.
When I use Eco Vet fly spray, my horse is less twitchy standing around in lessons. There’s less feet stomping and general annoyance. In fact, minus the occasional horse fly the only time I really see flies on him are around his head where I don’t spray Eco Vet.
I even let a fellow boarder try some on her horse, and she said they had a great trail ride around the property without being bothered by a single fly. That’s a pretty strong statement.
You can buy Eco Vet direct from their website, or through major retailers like Dover. For Dover’s price of $19.99, I’d pick up my own pretty happily. Yes, it smells horrid but I’d rather douse my horse in something that really helps him than just make him smell good. Plus Eco Vet lists lots of other benefits on their website like helping sweet itch and being safe for sensitive skinned horses.
My bottom line? I’d try this as an all natural replacement to traditional fly spray. Let me know what you think!
34 thoughts on “Product Review – Eco Vet Fly Spray”
Wow that’s pretty impressive!! I – strangely – have not seen ANY flies at my new barn so far this year, but after reading this review I might get a bottle of this spray to keep on hand for when we travel!
Did you notice by chance if it affected the mosquitos? My horse gets TORTURED by mosquitos (& no-see-ums) every summer.. I finally started using Off on him because nothing else worked, but I’d rather not use that.. 😛
I was wondering the same!
We have a lot of mosquitoes, but they’re hard to see. In general he is a lot less bothered by all insects when I ride him with this fly spray, and the website says that it works for mosquitoes as well!
I’ll give it a shot! Hope it does work as well on the blood-suckers as it does the flies! 😀
I miss my PNW summers with generally no flies. I’d like to go back now please.
Fascinating! I’d heard of this, but hadn’t seen it in person yet. I’ll have to check it out.
Haven’t heard of this brand. Will have to check it out because the flies are AWFUL here. As much as I love trail riding in summer, I hate it to because of the flies. I’ve always used Repelxp and it helps some but I definitely think it wears off when my horses start to sweat. Did this stuff last through out the lessons and riding even with your horse sweating?
It does. When I ride two days in a row I rarely spray on the 2nd day. If I do, it’s just his front legs.
Great review! I’ll have to give it a try!
Coconut with a hint of butthole is MY FAVORITE!!
Just kidding ;). But worth a shot!
Wait, that’s MY favourite too!!
I will definitely try this out after my current bottle runs out. Not only for the eau de nut with a hint of butthole, but also because I fucking hate flies. HATE THEM.
Just remember “all natural” does NOT equal safer. There’s TONS of completely natural substances that are horribly poisonous and toxic. I’m not implying anything negative about this product, I just get annoyed about companies using the term “all natural” as a marketing ploy for making people think things are safer.
Interesting methodology with the GPS confusion thing. Whatever works, right?
I’ve never seen this product up here. I’ll have to pick some up when I go to Florida in July. Love your product reviews!
Hmmmmm. The smell sounds … interesting … does it happen to say whether it’s wipe – able or comes in a wipe?
They don’t have any wipes on the site, but that would be a really good idea for this product.
I’m really intrigued by this! Since O lives outside all the time she comes in eaten up some days. A product that can last and really makes a difference is a huge win.
hm i’m intrigued! tho honestly my mare seems to be plagued the worst by all the little gnats we have at our farm that go for the eyes. would you consider this product safe to spray on your hand (or a towel) for application to the face? or is that recommended against?
I probably would keep it out of their face/eyes, but I’m pretty cautious with any product around Simon’s face. Pretty much only use Swat for that!
Our problem has been with the biting midges that get in the ears of our llamas to suck blood, spreading BTV. This product can be sprayed in the ears and back of the head and will keep the midges at bay, but should be applied daily to be fully effective. The widespread culicoides midges carry many diseases that afflict equines.
For details, see http://www.rattlesnakeridgeranch.com/documents/Bluetongue_disease.pdf
wonder if it exists in the great white north
If not, I think one of us in the great green south would probably be willing to ship it.
(Just came back to this post so I could order this stuff.)
Wow, sounds awesome! Does it work on all sorts of flies? What about ticks?
It’s the only spray I’ve found that helps sweet itch! This stuff is awesome, although you are right it does smell horrid.
Boy…. I think I will have to try this too!
Thank you for the review! Do you happen to know if it repels ticks as well? Max just got over Lyme and I’m hoping to keep those darn things off him so he doesn’t get it again! Even if it smells like coconut-scented butthole! (or butthole scented coconut..)
I will definitely be giving this a try. Two of my horses have very sensitive skin. I’d rather they smell odd than be covering in bug bites. 🙂
I might have to try this. We use Endure now and it works… sort of. We are lucky in that the chickens really keep down the flies, but we also use fly boots and masks, which honestly work better than any spray. Death to all bugs!
My idea= this on the legs and belly for actual repellent and Marigold spray everywhere else to mask the coconut-butthole (dear god what if it makes it worse?!)
My horse has been on this over 2 years – he’s very allergic to noseeums – EcoVet has a FB page and his before/after photos are on there. He was a classic SI horse, rubbed his mane, tail head, midline and face raw. He’s out of fly sheets and only uses the EcoVet. Totally worth the money against biting insects. Btw – it doesn’t smell that bad – I don’t mind it at all.
I read a review of this last year, but wasn’t able to buy it in Illinois until this year. My experience has been that it works very well, better than any other spray I’ve used, and lasts for a few hours. I find I have to apply lots of it, or the flies find the areas that are untreated. The smell is weird. It’s not really that awful, but it’s like it’s heavy. I hold my breath when applying it, and the “fragrance” lasts forever. I will say that there aren’t any flies at all in the aisle where I groom and apply it. I hope it’s really non-toxic, and I hope it works when the flies get really bitey.
Awesome Product review; I suggest you visit our website.
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