Home Made Fly Spray

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.

Need to keep the flies off your livestock this summer? This is a simple but effective Home Made Fly Spray made with essential oils. It’s easy to mix up and only uses a single basic essential oil.

Home Made Fly Spray

Home Made Fly Spray

A few years ago we brought home a new addition to our farm and the first little livestock…5 goats. Two Nubian Milk Goats and three Pygmy goats; a nice little goat herd that will help us clean up all the weeds at our former homestead left from the previous owners’ lack of pasture care.

They did a great job and have been happily munching away on the weeds. They cleared an entire section of pasture and more. Our goal was to get a few cows so our pasture needed to be cleaned up and ready for us to plant grass seed and revitalize the land.

Goats are very low maintenance creatures, as we’ve discovered. At the moment they have enough to eat here so we don’t really need to feed them and they really don’t take much care. Our two Pygmy goats are due to kid sometime in the next month or two so then they will require a bit more care, but so far we’ve really enjoyed keeping goats and being little goat farmers! We’ve built some bridges for the goats to play on and it’s so much fun to be in the pasture with the goats, because they will follow you around like little puppies. Our 2 year old is fascinated with them and loves his “goats!”. (He always has to yell the word goat!)

So now that you are picturing my little blond Farmer Boy shouting into the pasture 😉 let’s get back to livestock maintenance.

One problem that we have had with the goats is flies. Maybe it’s just this year or maybe it’s the fact that we live on a farm now, but the flies around here have been awful. In the house we’ve tried fly strips and fly traps and they still hang around. I know I’ll be grateful for that first frost when it comes! The flies have been really bugging the goats, too. After doing a bit of research, I came up with this recipe for a home made Fly Spray that works wonders! It’s all natural and so easy to make, not to mention it’s much cheaper than the toxic commercial brands. With having a little one around the goats all the time I wanted to make sure that we were using something on them that he wouldn’t have a reaction to if he got it on his skin as well. Here it is!

Home Made Fly Spray

What You Need:

What To Do:

In the empty spray bottle, add all of the above ingredients. Fill the rest of the bottle up with water and put the lid (sprayer) back on. Gently shake the bottle so that all of the ingredients are incorporated. Spray directly on the animal to prevent flies from landing on it. Gently shake again before using.

–Learn How to Organize Your Essential Oils

Home Made Fly Spray

While not as strong as a commercial fly spray, this spray is very effective. However, you may need to apply it a little more frequently than regular fly spray. I just apply to the goats as needed. This spray can be used on most livestock, however, do NOT use it on cats. Ask your vet before using on your pet if you aren’t sure how they will react.

–Find more Uses for Eucalyptus Essential Oil

I’m so glad we found a natural spray that works well! Now the goats aren’t bothered from the flies and I don’t have to worry about spraying chemicals on them. We’ve been using the spray all summer and have been very happy with it!

Do you have animals that could use some home made fly spray?

merissabio

This recipe for home made Fly Spray was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2014. It has been updated as of June 2019.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Support Little House Living by Sharing This

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

49 Comments

  1. I just came in from milking our new goat. I am so pleased with her! I also have a little blonde 2 yr. old farmerboy..a grandson. He loves our new goats as well,and did pretty much the same thing on Sat. when they were here! Your fly spray sounds good. My daughter makes this type of stuff,so I will share with her. Perhaps she’ll make me some!!

  2. Oddly enough, we have seen almost no flies this summer. I am NOT complaining! Have you tried the pennies in a ziploc bag of water? I have heard that it works but I have not tried it myself.

  3. This is great. I just got a horse and was looking for something natural that I could put on him. Do you think this will work on horses?
    I’m going to try and let you know what happens.

  4. Thanks for the fly spray recipe; I will try it! The current homemade spray I use is simply 2 cups vinegar mixed with 2 TBL Dawn dish soap. I enjoyed seeing how you lure your goats to stick around for the spraying; a bucket of food works wonders!

  5. You might consider adding lavender and peppermint to the eucalyptus oil. They are also good deterrents. Planting them around doorways helps too.

  6. The fly spray sounds wonderful, but please remind people to be careful not to get it in the animals’ eyes.

  7. Thank you for this suggestion. We live in Scotland, and the flies have been terrible this year. We only have a tiny flock of pet sheep, but we’ve been struggling all summer to keep the flies away. The weather is just now turning, so we might not need to do this at this time, but I’m keeping this recipe for next summer! Thanks again!

  8. I have eucalyptus plants. I wonder if I infused the leaves with the other ingredients…….What do you think?! 🙂

  9. Could I simply spray this inside of the coop as well? Flies are horrible where I am. I will definitely be making this and trying it out with my girls.

  10. I would have to buy eucalyptus by the gallon to spray our cattle herd since we have so many, but I plan on mixing some up for our two pigs and our show cattle. I want to add lavender as well. We use coconut oil on our pigs to keep their skin from drying out. I stopped having our house commercially sprayed with pesticides this year, and the flies have been horrible, but the thought of all of those chemicals around my children and pets scared me!

    1. Try diatomaceous earth for a natural pest repellent in your house. We have used it and we also use it in our chicken coop as well! 🙂

        1. You can just sprinkle it around the edges of your house, interior and exterior. If you have really little kids that would eat it then you could make a water solution of it. 1-4 T of DE (diatomaceous earth) to 1 gallon of water and then just spray the edges. It isn’t effective until it’s dry. You can get food grade DE that is edible, mostly intended for animals I believe, just in case you do have a little boy like mine that eats everything he sees. Just do a google search for DE and you’ll get lots of information!!

  11. Such a great post! I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams, starts on Fridays 😀 Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party.

  12. What a great tip! Hello, my name is Misty, from The LadyPrefers2Save, and I’m one of the new co-hosts for the Merry Monday Linky Party! Thanks for linking up at the Merry Monday’s Linky Party this week. Have an awesome week!

  13. I will try this one. Do you have any thing for fleas on dogs? Thank you for this site and blog. LOVE IT.

      1. But never on cats!
        I use Apple Cider Vinegar 1to 1 with warm water. I use cotton balls to rub from their ears around their neck, top & bellies & their tails.

    1. Try putting some alcohol on your hands when you pet your dog or cat and the fleas will get off. Don’t get it in their eyes but do start at the head and neck so the fleas won’t try to get on their face

  14. Any idea if this would work as a general spray around an area if you are camping? That is where I have been bombarded by flies this summer.

  15. i was wondering if anybody has used this on their horses yet? what do yall think? is it good? my barn is TERRIBLE this year with flies. we are using those fly cans and have to empty them about every day. we also have fly strips that we have to throw away about every 2days or so. horses look like theyve had a blood bath on their legs cause the flies bite so much. needing help!!

  16. Thanks for sharing this great idea!! I wanted to add a little information if I may….I was curious as to why you said not to use it on cats so I consulted Google and found that it is also toxic to dogs and horses! Just thought that might be good to add to the article since I’m sure there are plenty of horse owners and maybe a few dog owners that would be searching the web looking for DIY fly spray recipes 🙂

    1. It’s the plants that are poisonous to horses not the essential oil.
      Just wanted to clear that up as long as it’s steam distillation you should be fine.

  17. Thanks for the info! We just bought a 5 acre organic farm and we plan on getting goat’s and chickens. I am all about going natural and non toxic. We have never farmed before so this is a new adventure for us. We move at the end of this month!

    1. Try putting some alcohol on your hands when you pet your dog or cat and the fleas will get off. Don’t get it in their eyes but do start a
      t the head and neck so the fleas won’t try to get on their face
      They sell some bags at the feed store that I use and they work good to get rid of the flies I have goats,sheep,chickens turkey’s and rabbits.These are hung away from your animals in a tree or somewhere high enough that kids won’t get into they are empty when you get them except for the fly attraction that smells like rotten meat you add w ate to the line on the bag and hang it up .it works like all other traps flies get in and can’t get out they die

  18. Hello! I have a little herd of Nigerian Dwarfs who are really bothered by these little flies after two weeks of wet weather here in NC. I just applied your spray and they are fly-free! One of our goats is expecting, so I did’t want to use any harsh chemicals. Thank you so much!

  19. Thank you for this great information. I am sure that I’ve read all the comments. Need clearer understanding:)
    Is it something in the eucalyptus oil that repels or kills the flies?
    I would prefer a mint aroma (peppermint, spearmint) if possible.
    Also, do you have a recommendation for a natural solution to spray for “yellow biting fly” killer? They cause major distress and would rather stay indoors than be covered in commercial spray or giant welts. It’s worse for the youngsters.
    Thanks again

    1. This repels flies, it will not kill them. I would recommend doing research on any oil you plan on using around animals, I know that peppermint oil can be extremely harmful to many animals including cats.