It’s fly season. You and your horse are being swarmed by flying insects of all kinds. Tails swishing, feet stomping, skin twitching. You need some fly spray, NOW.
After heading to the store, you are bombarded with numerous brands and price points. Some claim to last 14 days. Some say wipe on. Does that one say it has coat conditioner? How are you to know which one you should get?
Well, luckily for you, dear reader, we’re here to help. After over fifteen years of owning and being around horses, we have tried numerous repellant brands with varying results. We’ll share our findings with you today!
Please note that we have not tried every brand out there. This is just a list of all the sprays we have tried and some of the benefits and drawbacks of each one. We are always on the hunt for effective and affordable products so let us know what has worked for you down below!
Fly Sprays We Have Tried
The sprays we will talk about are as follows (non-affiliate links):
- Farnam Endure Sweat Resistant Fly Spray
- Farnam Equisect Fly Repellent
- Bronco “e” Equine Fly Spray Plus Citronella Scent
- Pyranha Wipe N’ Spray Fly Repellent for Horses
- UltraShield® EX Insecticide & Repellent
- Farnam Tri Tec 14 Fly Repellent
- Bye Bye Insect Essential Oil Fly Spray
- DuMOR Equine Fly Spray
Our main measurement of quality was whether or not they are effective for our most sensitive horse, Monarch. Monarch is a horse that will kick, stomp, and run herself to death to get the bugs away from her. Horseflies LOVE her. She is one of the main reasons we have tried so many sprays.
Please note that these are just our opinions. These sprays may work better on your horse in your area. We live in Wisconsin near Lake Michigan where the spring season is usually fairly wet. Also, we do discuss the current price point (June 2022) of each spray but please recognize item prices may change over time. On that, let’s start talking fly spray!
Farnam Endure Sweat Resistant Fly Spray
Endure is really our holy grail fly spray. This is the only one that is effective at keeping flies away from Monarch for a meaningful amount of time. Endure can be applied as a spray or a wipe on (we typically opt for spray).
It advertises protection from biting and nuisance flies, gnats, and deer ticks that may transmit Lyme disease. Absorbine (the manufacturer) claims that its formula sticks to the hair shaft and is sweat resistant.
The only drawbacks may be the smell and the price. Although not too strong, the smell can be a little off-putting to people who are more sensitive to a chemical smell. This spray is also quite pricey, currently (June 2022) sitting at $30/quart. That aside, we would recommend anyone with a bug-sensitive horse to try this spray.
Farnam Equisect Fly Repellent
Before we got Monarch, this was our tried and true fly repellant. The smell is pretty pleasant and is “naturally-based”. It works very well on other horses (not the best for Monarch) and claims to repel and kill horn, stable, house, horse, and deer flies as well as mosquitoes, lice, and gnats.
Not to mention it is non-greasy and claims to be able to kill fleas and ticks on dogs and cats (follow the manufacturer’s instructions)! If this spray works for your horse, we believe you have hit the fly repellant jackpot. At just $16/quart, this spray is affordable, effective, and an all-around great buy in my opinion.
Bronco “e” Equine Fly Spray Plus Citronella Scent
This is the one spray line that we really would not recommend and we would blatantly say to avoid the Bronco Gold line. The price point ($10-16) may be attractive but don’t let this fool you.
For the Bronco “e” spray, you are just wasting your money in my opinion. They claim to kill and repel stable, horse, face, deer, house, and horn flies, gnats, ticks, fleas, chiggers, and lice and repel mosquitoes. We did not see any sort of effect when using it. The flies did not seem to care at all. If this spray works for you, more power to ya.
As for the Bronco Gold, Monarch (as well as many other horses seen in reviews) had a pretty severe allergic reaction on her skin. She broke out in large hives and to top it off, the fly spray didn’t work at all. We would not recommend this spray to anyone who has a sensitive or reaction-prone horse or to anyone who wants a spray that works. 😉
Pyranha Wipe N’ Spray Fly Repellent for Horses
Although we have never personally purchased this spray, we have borrowed some from friends at the barn. The benefits of this spray are that it works well on most horses (didn’t last too long for Monarch) and repels several flies, gnats, and mosquitos.
It is best used as a wipe-on (hence the name “wipe n’ spray”) but the formula can make your horse oily and greasy. The spray has a pretty strong smell but isn’t too off-putting. This spray is among one of the pricier sprays on the market at $28/quart (June 2022) but we would recommend people try this spray.
UltraShield® EX Insecticide & Repellent
This is the product we are currently trying for our horses (was on sale at Tractor Supply). Sadly, it works ok on everyone but Monarch. One benefit is the bottle compresses to help pressurize the product out as you use it. The sprayer design also allows you to switch between horizontal and vertical sprays which is great for switching from legs to body.
The product claims to repel gnats, flies, mosquitoes, lice, no-see-ums, chiggers, midges, and fleas. The drawbacks to this spray are its strong chemical smell and its unsubstantiated claims of longevity. We have to reapply quite often so we aren’t sure we agree.
The price isn’t too terrible at $24/quart (June 2022). Overall we would recommend most people try this spray.
Farnam Tri Tec 14 Fly Repellent
This is a spray that we haven’t used a ton (again we borrowed from friends), but the few times we used it, it seemed to work fine. It advertises protection from horse, house, stable, face, horn, and deer flies, plus gnats and mosquitoes.
Not too many opinions about this spray. The smell is a bit weird and it is a bit pricey at $30/quart but we do believe it works well for most horses.
Bye Bye Insect Essential Oil Fly Spray
We tried this fly spray a few years ago in search of a more natural option. It comes in concentrate form and you can dilute it down to 50/50 with water. We would say this is a good natural fly spray but it did not work great for our horses. It may work better for people in less insect-heavy areas.
The company also mentions that the formula may stain white or gray horses yellow. We ignored this warning and tried it anyway and oh boy they were right. Stormy was stained for the entire summer and Monarch’s socks only came clean after about 30 minutes of scrubbing with purple shampoo.
The price is not too bad for a natural fly spray — $25/quart — but unfortunately it just didn’t work that great for our horses. We encourage you to try it out with yours because it is a great natural option.
You can also check out our video review (the price mentioned was from 2019).
DuMOR Equine Fly Spray
This is the spray that Sam used when she had Monarch out at school with her. The price point is amazing at $8/quart and it is fairly effective for the price. I did have to reapply often but for the price, I didn’t mind (I really couldn’t afford the good stuff at the time).
The product claims to protect against horn, house, stable, horse, and deer flies, gnats, mosquitoes, fleas, chiggers, lice, and ticks. They also state the longevity of the product depends on the environment, temperature, and moisture and you should reapply as needed.
This spray may not work for everyone but if it is available to you, we definitely recommend you try it out.
Thank you for reading our review of all the fly sprays we have tried over the years. Please remember these are our personal opinions and some sprays that worked for us, might not work for you and vice versa. Let us know down below if you have any other sprays that you swear by or that you hate! We’d love to hear from you.
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