Catnip Oil Tested as Stable Fly Repellent

Anyone who’s ever set foot on a farm has most likely encountered the plaguelike presence of Stomoxys calcitrans–otherwise known as stable flies. These pests are both an annoyance and a health risk for horses, but the results of a recent study indicate that a common treat for cats might be the answer barn managers are looking for.
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Anyone who's ever set foot on a farm has most likely encountered the plaguelike presence of Stomoxys calcitrans–otherwise known as stable flies. These pests are both an annoyance and a health risk for horses, but the results of a recent study indicate that a common treat for cats might be the answer barn managers are looking for.

"Horses are very, very sensitive to stable flies," said David Taylor, PhD, a research entomologist with the USDA. "Cattle will acclimate (to the flies) but one or two flies on a horse and that horse is much more difficult to handle." Additionally, stable flies are known to transmit diseases such as equine infectious anemia.

Junwei J. Zhu, PhD, a research entomologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Christopher Dunlap, PhD, a research chemist with the USDA-ARS, recently conducted a study to see if catnip oil might help repel stable flies from barns. According to Zhu, catnip has been shown to repel more than 13 families of insects, including mosquitoes, since scientists began investigating the material in the 1970s.

In order to test the efficacy of catnip as a fly repellent, Zhu and his team (in collaboration with specialists from the University of Nebraska's Entomology Department) crafted both oil- and water-based repellents from the plant's active ingredient compounds (nepetalactones) and spread the repellents in areas frequented by cattle to assess the reactions of the stable flies

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