Interest in using low-toxicity repellents applied to animals to reduce biting by blood-feeding flies has increased over the last decade. Some repellents have demonstrated short-term protection to treated animals. Many repellents are suitable for use in organic animal production and their use will support increased adoption of organic production methods. Repellents can also be used as part of a push-pull strategy, by "pushing" biting flies away from more valuable hosts treated with repellents with flies "pulled" toward traps or toward less valuable animals that are either untreated or treated with insecticides. This presentation will discuss use of repellents applied to animals and review research outcomes from some previous studies using this method to reduce fly biting rates.
