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  Discussion on Simplifly
Author Message
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - 9:28 am:

Has anyone used this product? If so, what kind of results did you get? Dr. O., it seems safe, have you heard anything otherwise? The site says it stops the fly breeding cycle and doesn't contain organophospates. I got a free pail of it for participating in a survey and would like to try it in our barn, but not just because it was free! I want to make sure it won't hurt anyone first.
Thanks,
Alicia
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - 10:05 am:

What does it say is in it?
DrO
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - 10:56 am:

The active ingredient is Diflubenzuron (Dimilin) (CAS# 35367-38-5). Says it contains 1.09 grams of diflubenzuron per pound. This compound is supposed to stop the formation of fly exo skeletons. The other inactive ingredients are wheat middlings, dehydrated alfalfa meal, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, and calcium propionate.
Did this help?
Alicia
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Apr 9, 2005 - 3:52 pm:

Alicia, I cannot find any published studies of horses but the product is considered safe in cattle. There is some concern about its effect on non-target insect and arthropod speces which inadvertently come into contact but apparently this is considered acceptable by the EPA as there are registered cattle products out there.
DrO
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - 10:34 am:

OK, not too sure still if I want to try it though. Can you see any reason besides lack of studies (and killing off beneficial insects, that kind of bothers me) that I wouldn't want to?
Alicia
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - 8:29 am:

What would the daily dose (mg of diflubenzuron per kg of bodyweight) be Alicia?
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - 11:08 am:

Well, they give amounts per animal. For a 900 to 1100 lb horse, they suggest 1 ounce, which contains .068125 grams. For a 1100 to 1300 pound horse, they suggest 1.5 ounces, which contains .1021875 grams. So that ranges from .000093 for the highest to .00006 for the lowest per pound of horse.
Alicia
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - 7:37 pm:

Looking at what have been deemed as acceptable daily dosages by those who should know these doses are tiny Alicia. Unless horses have some unusual reaction that mice, cats, rats, dogs, cattle or humans don't you should be safe by a factor of over 100.
DrO
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005 - 11:26 am:

Yay!! I will print this out to show the barn.
I will report on how it works.
Thanks,
Alicia
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 7:52 pm:

Alicia, have you been using the Simplifly long enough to see if it helps with the flies, or is it too early in the season to tell?
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 10:33 am:

Sara,
Even with my "proof" it wouldn't hurt any horses, not everyone agreed to go on it, so we aren't using it. Anyone want a 25 pound container of it, I got it for free for doing a survey.
Alicia
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 11:58 am:

Too bad. I think it's going to be a bad fly year, at least out here. It's been so wet. I'm always curious about new ways to prevent/controll them.

I've been extremely hesitant to try feed through stuff, but this sounded pretty safe.
Member:
Aannk

Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 12:09 pm:

Yeah, me too. It is mainly a case of "let someone else try it first" at our place too ;)
Alicia
Member:
Brandi

Posted on Thursday, Jun 16, 2005 - 3:15 am:

Dr. O., I believe that the older products were harmful (deadly) to birds who picked in the manure. Do you have any information or thoughts regarding this one? This is one reason I've never chosen to use such products.
Brandi
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jun 16, 2005 - 8:37 am:

Neither have I seen evidence that the older organophosphate feed-throughs nor this product were dangerous to birds Brandi. Perhaps you are talking about the pretreatment of seeds for horticulture with some of the organophosphates that either persisted for long times or too which some species of birds were very sensitive. If you have any information to the contrary I would be interested.
DrO
Member:
Brandi

Posted on Friday, Jun 17, 2005 - 2:24 pm:

Dr. O, I don't have any hard evidence to the contrary, just the statements of 2 environmental friends of mine. Neither are horse owners, but both agreed feed-through fly control products were harmful to birds. Are there older products for other livestock maybe that they were familiar with? Either way, I am thrilled that you say there is no evidence of this, because I have steered away from them for years because of that. Is there a discussion that addresses any contraindications with parasitic wasps and feed-throughs? I want to get my fly-killing program dialed, and this will be a good tool to add.
Thanks so much for the info.
Member:
Paul303

Posted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2005 - 12:11 am:

I've been feeding Equitrol for more than 15 yrs. with no problems. We were very impressed when we first tried it and just stuck with it - even when the problems were reported. We watched the case with interest, but Equitrol was not pulled, and we'd been using it for so long with good results, we just stuck with it.

We've had manure picking birds and chickens the entire time with no problems or sick or birds around.

Over all this time, we've only had two colics, and those were due to sand. All the horses are chronicly healthy (knock wood) and five out of seven are 25+ and ridden regularly.

I'm not pushing the product, this is just my experience. But I would like to know, Dr.O, should the product be rotated like wormers? Or does that not apply with these products? And what is the difference from the daily wormers? Is it that Equitrol prevents eggs from hatching and Strongid Daily works on the worms in the gut directly?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2005 - 8:56 am:

Certainly the Equitrol should not be used with the fly larvae as they come into contact with the feces, but I am not sure about the diflubenzuron. As a growth regulator it would not effect the adult wasps but it might prevent the wasp larva from developing into adults. That would be a good question for the folks who send you the wasp.
DrO
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