‘Nature’s terrorists’
ALSO known as grey flies, clegs or deer flies, horseflies are nature’s terrorists – persistent, aggressive, and hard to control.
They can cause immense distress and disturbance to grazing horses in the warm summer months. They are also important vectors of some equine diseases and were considered to have been involved in the transmission of the virus of equine infectious anaemia (EIA) during the outbreak that occurred in Ireland in 2006.
Adult horseflies live for only a few weeks. Both males and females feed on plant nectar, but the females also need to suck blood to provide mammalian proteins in order to produce eggs. They are not very fussy as to what species they feed on 0 analysis of
