If I had to describe myself, I’d say I was a nature lover. I’m forever taking the side of birds, insects, amphibians and mammals, and can argue the case for just about any creature, even pests. But at this time of year there is one exception: the horsefly.
I hate horseflies. I cannot see why they’ve been put on this earth, or any possible benefit they have. People complain about houseflies, but although they definitely don’t feature on my list of favourite insects, I can see their role in breakdown of unwanted materials. But horseflies are a menace to horses and humans and no doubt a lot of other creatures too. Gardening has suddenly become a high-risk business - I seem to do more leaping about than weeding and sowing. We even have a house rule that hitting is allowed if it means squashing a horsefly before it attacks!
Apparently eating garlic helps to fend them off, and, interestingly my son is rarely affected. But he doesn’t eat any more garlic than the rest of the family. Last week we ate tomato sauce on pasta , made using three huge, succulent and freshly harvested cloves of garlic. It made no difference. Perhaps I should rub the stuff on my skin, but then would any humans come near me? I use insect repellent and it works brilliantly but I hate slathering myself (and worse still the kids) in chemicals. The garden is suffering!
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I feel the same about mosquitos – no discernable use to anyone. I’ve had some success repelling them with a lavender gel and, believe it or not, eating Marmite! Don’t knnow if it works for horseflies as I don’t see them here.
Horseflies…ugh ive been bitten 3 times this week already and the bites swell up quickly. I havnt found a repellent for them but living in forrestry commision area, have learnt the forrestry men use avon products (shower gels etc) have since tried them and success ! Worth a try
I saw a lady bird today the first one in ages, all these useful bugs seem to be dissapearing whilst things that are no use to man or beast seem to thrive, I fear for our bee’s and butterflies as well.I must admit horse flies and mosquito’s are my worst enamies,along with wasps,they all seem to bite me.
Can you please advise me when it is the right time to cut down all spring leaves from Heleborus, they re growing strongly and cramping other plans in the woodland garden, i.e. hostas.
Is there such a plant as “hot lips”.
thenk you.
Eileen Carter.
@bunnysgarden
Yes, Avon’s Skinsosoft, applied liberally to all exposed skin, is a popular and fairly effective protection from biting insects. It won’t necessarily stop them landing on you (it’s not a repellent) but it seems to make them less likely to bite.
I was first tole about it by a squaddie (apparently they buy it for themselves and take it out in their bergens, which is a fun image) but now you’ll find it in places like camping shops (eg Tisos) especially up here in Scotland where midges are the real concern.
im finding ants seem to be my problem i think that i have kill them all and then they pop up again and again.
I am so with you all on this subject! I went out in the garden this evening, I had been looking forward to a bit of garden time all day; three minutes later I had been bitten so badly by mosquitoes I had to come in. However much you use insect repellent they always seem to find the square inch uncovered. I have tried skinsosoft too but it didn’t work.
Eileen, there is a Salvia called ‘Hotlips’.Red and white flower petals. I don’t usually get bitten by much…maybe my skin’s unpalateable!, but when I used to ride, horseflies were the bane of our life in hot weather. Ants are a pet hate of mine. When we moved into our house we had to lift the floorboards in the kitchen to get at the air vent in the wall and remove an ants nest, very nasty. That was one of the black ant colonies, further down the garden were a few red ant nests, even nastier. A combination of bait, boiling water, and disturbing the nests (and 11 yrs of doing it!) seem to have moved the blighters on…..for now!!
We haven’t had horse flies til this year – and only on the allotment where we collected horse manure and spread as a mulch. I have managed to keep them from biting me by covering up and insect repellent -though I’m with Pippa on not really wanting to use chemicals on my skin – but they LOVE my husband, and his legs are their favourite “blood snack”. We eat garlic with evening meal, perhaps we need to do so for breakfast!!
I am moving house in late august and want to take my tree peaony (4 yrs old) with me. I know they do not normally like being disturbed. Has anyone successfully done this? Many thanks.
Pippa, horseflies are astonishing creatures. For one thing they have the most beautiful eyes in the animal kingdom, all dots and bars of metallic blues, green and reds. Secondly, they stalk their prey with a delicate precision that is awe-inspiring. The silent swoop to the back of the neck is something vampire story writers cannot match. Thirdly, they are declining widely in the British countryside, part of a general malaise of which these and other insects are key indicators. Some are especially handsome too, there are well-documented reports of entomologists visiting the New Forest and stripping off their shirts (this was in the early 20th century so quite shocking) in attempts to attract the large horsefly species for which the area was well known.
I have a small yard where i grow great hostas. This year I have been bitten by flies or midges etc. I tried eating garlic and didn’t seem to do much. my brother inlaw suggested putting a tiny amount of jeyes fluid in my saved rainwater. I did try the garlic in there as well but although the hostas look strong did not stop the flies. Any ides as I don’t want to ruin the plants that are doing well.
i spend all of my spare time in my garden and it normally gives great pleasure, until the last 2 weeks! suddenly i have to dress like it is spring or like a bee keeper!i cannot get to the bottom of the garden to my summer house without being attacked by horseflies! they should all be exterminated, i used the avon product last year for a holiday in scotland and it seemed to work,well reminded, thankyou
We may find insects like horseflies and mosquitos a nuisance, but they play an important part in the food chain Swifts, martins and swallows eat mosquitos by the million and they’re also food for bats, other birds, dragonflies and amphibians. Fish feed on their larvae. Horsefly larve provide meals for invertebrates, shrews and mice and birds eat the adults. Remove any of these pestilential inects (in human terms)from the food chain and there are upsets all down the line.
nnn
the last post was just a test post…
i have been bitten by what i think is a horsefly.. after reading your blog pippa i now realise what these two big blisters on my arm are from. Having acquired an allotment this year it can only be horsefly bites, as i have never been bitten so badly in all my life. These flys are quite nasty things really..
I do not have a cure for horsefly bites which are some of the most painful I have suffered, but if you are plagued by mosquitos, make sure your water butts are covered as that stops the larvae breeding. If you don’t have a cover, put a drop of light oil in the water – It stops them breathing through the surface.
Also at this time of year watch out for ticks in long grass and leaves. In the area I live in they carry Lyme disease which is much worse than a horsefly bite!
Shine 52 – much better to leave your tree peony for the next occupier of your house and look for a seedling at the base which you can then pot up. It will grow quickly. Otherwise why not ask them to send you some seed (they are very large) and grow a new one? The ants are driving me wild this year.
Hi, I’m makeing a raised bed and it will
be sitting on concrete as I want to grow climbers onto my garage wall.Will this work? or is it a daft idea! Please
advice.
KK.
Shine 52, I did move my tree peony when I moved house, and it has gradually whithered away, branch by branch, and no flowers at all for last two years. So am with happymarion – don’t do it. Though I’ve never managed to get peonies to grow from seed – do they need vernalisation?
Pippa, I’ve just been using your pests and diseases book to identify that all our runner beans have been struck with virus and need pulling up and disposing of. Could you clarify – is the virus in the soil (its a new allotment and we double dug the bed and cleared the dandelions from it, adding well rotted horse manure before planting). Do I need to remove all the soil, or will I be able to grow runner beans there in future years after crop rotation? What other veg will be affected if I rotate something into it? Courgettes are in the other half of the bed and seem ok at the moment – they are cropping well. Thanks for any info you can give.
Mary – sow your tree paeony seeds fresh (still hard) into good loam and overwinter in a cold frame. They will grow roots in 6weeks and shoot next spring when you can plant them out. Varieties do not come true but you will still get a great shrub.
To protect myself from biting insects I use Eau de Cologne mint. I wear a sprig behind my ears when I’m in the garden. Smells lovely but deters the insects. Available from nursery herb sections.
Hi Mary,
If your beans have a virus then it won’t be in thre soil, the problems associated with bean after bean and year after year is that soil borne fungi build up that can cause dieback and death. Generally changing the soil in the area occuopied by the root system of the bean and of course its neighbours, plus a little more will do the trick….but that is still a lot of soil, and it really is a lot easier and better to plant beans on a new site after a year or two, retuning again in three or four years.
Glad you are enjoying the pests and diseases book, not sure which edition you have but just to let you know that it has just been fully updated (new pests and diseases added, changes made to pesticides etc etc) and has just become available. YOu can get it in most good bookshops or get a signed copy at a special price from my website http://www.pippagreenwood.com
Richard,
I thought you might leap to the defence of the horsefly, but can’t say I wait to gaze in to their wonderfully coloured eyes !!
My garden has a terrible weed problem so last year I dug out one of the beds, put down weed memebrane and covered it with bark chippings and thought I’d solved the problem. To my dismay weeds are now seeding in the chippings and grass is penetrating the membrane. Any suggestions as to where I’m going wrong?
Thanks Pippa and HappyMarion. I’ll give the peonies another go, and try not to despair over the beans.
I recently lost my ‘Gardens to visit guide’ which arrived with my May edition of gardeners World. I still have the ’2-for-1′ entry card but now I don’t know which gardens I can visit on the offer. Can anyone tell me how I go about getting another copy, or if the gardens are detailed somewhere on the site. I have searched and cannot find any information. Thanks. Roma
I have just googled horse flies and you came up…………I have a theory that there are more of these evil little things about this year. At this moment I am nursing 4 bites and a few weeks ago my hand was bitten so badley It came up like a rubber glove that had been blown into. I know so many people who have been bitten this year but never before.
I so agree with judyp! I’ve been bitten almost every time I go to the allotment – which means most evenings! I’ve tried loads of repellents but am allergic to most, so it is a toss up whether I suffer the reaction to a horsefly bite or the repellent! Whichever,my legs and arms seem to be permanently swollen and itchy at the moment!
Whoops posted before asking the question! There was an article in the Evening Standard Friday magazine about five weeks ago about an insect repellent which was not only effective, but smelt really nice and lemony. Stupidly I chucked the paper in the recycling before cutting it out and haven’t been able to find out any details since. Does anyone know anything about this?? I would be eternally grateful as seriouly fed up with swollen lumps all over body!
Never mind horse flies I’m infested with huge HORNETS. They scare me to death. I want to know what use they are?
Havent been bothered by horse flies even though we are only a hundred yards from stables. Had millions of ladybirds this year, it was even on Anglia News, so thankfully not many aphids this year.
You seem to think that plants and animals were ‘put here for a purpose’ – they weren’t; they just evolved within ecosystems to exploit available resources and reproduce.
On Friday afternoon (6/11/09) I was bitten by two horseflies whilst I was clearing up leaves in the garden. All summer I had been putting insect repellent on, but did not bother before going outside this time, as I thought they would be hibernating or dead, or whatever horseflies do in the winter. The result of not using the the insect repellent was the two bites which unfortunately were quite close to my right eye.
During the course of Saturday the swelling came up and I ended up going to the A&E depatment of our nearest hospital. I saw a nurse, doctor and consultant very quickly (within an hour of arrival) and the end result is that I have to take 14, yes 14, tablets a day for the next week. I also look as if I have been in the ring with Henry Cooper, Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali all at once – I am not a pretty sight.
So, please be warned, if you are allegic to horsefly bites, like I am, keep using the insect repellent or whatever, when you go outside at this time of year, as the little devils are not dead yet.
Does anybody know what happens to horseflies during the winter?
Moving House in July from one FULL Self made over 8yrs Cottage Garden to a beautiful landscaped (But fairly stark) Quarter Acre Plot.
Desperate to move everything!!! But husband forbids and indeed is quirte right. My passion is Spring – How do I move my precious bulbs/primevera/irises that I have nurtured for years. Do I just pot them up (in small quantities!) and if so when plus when do I pop them in their new garden? All suggestions welcome.
Cathy, the lemon-scented oil you want is called Citronella. Half-a-dozen drops in almond oil are enough to repel an army of mosquitoes. Unfortunately, it was not enough to protect me from a furious horsefly!