> If you put it in your paddock dirt it's only a short matter of time > before you and the horses (and honey bees, fly predators, ladybugs, > etc) are breathing dust laced with sevin > (http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/facts-slides-self/facts/gen-pubre- > sevin.html). > > And gnats and midges don't propagate in dry dirt anyway -- they need > wetness (http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef632.asp). You > need to move to the desert. >
Where I live may as well be the desert. It is pure sand. so what happens, is the manure, urine, water spillage etc, seeps down, apparently causes a layer of moist earth. My plan is to remove the first six inches of dirt that is more like "soil" than sand, disc it after that and allow to dry in the sun, then take clean sand from elsewhere and put on top of the then clean dry earth. I was thinking of mixing in some sevin after removing the top layer and before adding the new top layer. From what I've read they need moisture and a blood host. My lots are so dry, the moisture has to be coming from the horses themselves, their waste, spillover from water tanks etc.. It is almost like beach sand. no plants of any kind. dry lots. I read some articles and it said they reproduce in the moist earth and come up thru the sand. I've got to get rid of the moist earth. Janice -- even good horses have bad days sometimes.
