Milk cows and bugs

[MikeParks]

Black flies to be specific (no real black flies... if your not in Maine you may need to look it up).

I am trying to figure out a good (safe) homemade spray for our two milk cows who are refusing to leave the barn. The cow's teats are all welted from the bites (even though we are using bag balm on them. It gets dirty and then the bugs can land on them). Also they attack everywhere on the cow, their backs are just covered in them.
I found any type of cooking oil will keep them off of the barn posts but I don't know if it would be a good idea to be spraying the cows with canola (with summer coming it will make them so hot).

Swarms of millions of black flies decend on us in spring and hang around till July to August. Then a little while after the black flies appear the "no-see-ems" come out (tiny nat like bugs that have a very painful bite), along with mosquitoes. No matter where you live you get them.

It is not fun. A lot of people up here seem to take some kind of weird pride in it (I haven't the foggiest idea why since it appears in every respect to me to be a curse).

Thanks
Mike

[GBov]

I dont know if this will work but I saw on telly one day a home made mozzy repellant.

Take a light veg oil and add blended lemon grass, let stand for a day and then strain. Rub or spray on.

As I said, I dont know if it will work for flys but its worth a try, either that or move LOL

[MikeParks]

Yes. The only thing I was worried about was using cooking oils on the cows. If it would cause them problems??

[GBov]

As long as its a veg oil it shouldnt be a problem, after all, I use veg oil on the kids when they get dry skin so it should be gentle enough for your cow.

They also use veg oil on rino's and tapiers so I really cant see cows being harmed by it, just expect them to be a bit slippery lol