Achieve Your 2024 Fly Control Goals

Horn flies on pastured beef cattle reduce weight gains, decrease feed efficiency and lower productivity, costing the US cattle industry over $1 billion every year. To keep cattle performing their best and to maintain control of your bottom line, follow these horn fly control tips throughout 2024.

1. Be Proactive, Not Reactive: Don’t wait until your horn fly population is out of control! Utilize multiple types of horn fly control as part of an Integrated Pest Management Program before horn fly season hits this summer. Have a plan that incorporates IGRs, uses Starbar® products and protects natural fly predators to ensure your herd’s success.
2. Insect Growth Regulators: Altosid® IGR is classified as an Insect Growth Regulator or IGR. Altosid® IGR targets the immature horn fly larvae and stops them from developing into problematic adults, quickly breaking the lifecycle before horn flies become a problem.
3. Be Selective: Monitor your herd and use chemical treatments to target adult horn flies on an as-needed basis. By treating based on the horn fly population instead of on a schedule, you can better avoid genetic resistance and limit the negative impact on your beneficial pasture insects.
4. Natural Fly Control: By selectively using chemical adulticides for horn flies, you can support the naturally occurring fly enemies like parasitic wasps and predatory beetles and utilize your pasture’s free biological control. Natural fly predators and parasitoids help control horn fly populations with little to no input and have no adverse effect to the livestock or humans.

The Altosid® IGR team can’t wait to head to Orlando for NCBA January 31-February 2, 2024! Stop by our booth #1321 to get expert advice to achieve your 2024 fly control goals and learn more about Central Life Sciences.