Someone asked me the question this morning about a non chemical remedy for lice in horses – and O. M. Goodness it just makes you itch thinking about it doesn’t it?
If you have ever had a horse with lice – it’s the stuff of nightmares – ugh! And so much work to make sure the little beggars are REALLY gone – permanently. Much easier to prevent them!
There are five different ways listed here to get rid them – four that work and one that doesn’t. 🙂
Good old fashioned yellow sulphur powder works to get rid of the beasties. Take the top off a bath talc container, empty the contents and fill with sulphur powder that you have put through a sieve to get out all the lumps. You want the powder all over the horse (not as easy as it sounds) – but specially focus on under and through the mane, under and all through the forelock, along the topline or the back of the horse and very thoroughly through and around and under the tail – making sure that the powder get to the roots of the hair.
Wear a simple mask from the chemist – you don’t want that stuff in your lungs.
I personally like neem oil. You can buy organic, pure undiluted neem oil off e-bay for about $40 a litre and between dogs flea control and horses I am still using the bottle that I bought 5 years ago.
Neem oil important note: Since I wrote this article, my rooster has started firing blanks. The chickens’ eggs, although fertilized are not hatching any babies and I am wondering if the Neem oil is the cause. So for those of you with breeding stock, I wouldn’t take the risk of using Neem oil at all.
Since writing THAT warning, Amanda came in to the comments section, reporting that a guy who makes Neem oil said to wear gloves if you wanted to get pregnant, because it was a natural contraceptive. Hmmm…. a natural contraceptive – permanent or temporary I wonder? Ah well at my age I don’t need to worry, but anyone younger than me wear gloves to make sure. I think my rooster is still firing blanks… And there are instructions for using Diatomaceous Earth below as well.
When I hear the word “lice” I immediately go into overkill. So my dilution rates reflect that overkill. I have used about a teaspoon to 500ml WARM water (neem oil cools into a soft solid oil and clogs up the nozzle if you use cold water.)
Spray the whole horse with the neem oil in water, paying special attention to wetting the underneath of the mane and forelock, through the mane and forelock making sure the roots of the hair is wet as well as the length – also along the top of the back and very thoroughly all around the tail area. If it’s washing weather, you can put 2 teaspoons of neem oil into a bucket of warm water and wash the horse.
I have also used neem oil by mixing it with coconut oil – 1 teaspoon of neem oil to a small jar of coconut oil – warm both oils up by standing the jar in hot water, shaking to mix and allowing to cool back into the solid oil that coconut oil is in the colder weather. I have used that for a follow up for rubbing into the manes and tails and forelocks with some horses who were “thingy” about the sound and feel of the spray.
Do you like my wonderful English there – “thingy” ?
Neem oil changes the hormones of the insect so that they cannot breed – then when they die that’s the end of them. For god’s sake don’t ever use the stuff in your garden – you will eliminate the bees and other critically beneficial insects along with the ones you want to get rid of! And THAT would completely stuff up your garden!
Diatomaceous earth is an effective remedy for lice in horses and fleas in dogs. You sprinkle that through their coat – again paying special attention under the mane and forelock and along the back and rubbing it in everywhere else that you can get the stuff to stay there. And again wearing a mask from the chemist and keep the powder flying around the area to a minimum – diatomaceous earth is ground up silica and I don’t want my lungs or the lungs of my animals filled up with the stuff either.
I could use a lot of fancy words, but diatomaceous earth kills the insect by drying out the outside bits of their body.
Make sure that you get the fine food grade diatomaceous earth. Don’t let anyone sell you the coarse stuff – it doesn’t work. Someone who should have known better sold me the coarse gritty stuff for the dogs’ fleas and it is apparently an absolute no-no and it doesn’t work either.
The life cycle of a louse is about 2 weeks, so making sure that neem oil and diatomaceous earth are still in the horse’s coat and rugs and brushes etc is a good deal – or re-apply if there is no powder left in the coat.
Diatomaceous earth is great stuff to use for the environmental clean-up that is an incredibly important part of making sure that you don’t have to do this whole lice clean up over and over again.
So the dreaded clean up:
EVERY horse – even if they show no signs of lice – EVERY horse who could have touched noses or brushed tails even across the fence gets treated. There is nothing more demoralising than having to go through all of this again…
EVERY rug,
EVERY brush,
EVERY saddle blanket
EVERY bit of gear
All of these things treat with neem oil OR dust with diatomaceous earth or both – paying special attention the seams of the rugs and deep into the bristles of the brush or even soak them in a bucket of diluted neem oil for the day. Diluted Neem oil sprayed inside rugs (also diatomaceous earth into the lining seams of the rugs) and brushes soaked in it and saddle blankets sprayed and then even follow up with a dusting of diatomaceous earth as well.
Then we need to dust all the places where the horses rub around the farm – diatomaceous earth because the neem oil fades away in efficacy in sunlight – otherwise the horses will just have them back again next month after they scratch on that post…
And there is a chemical lice killer that comes in single doses for horses – very nasty stuff – but you still have to do all the other treatments of gear and surroundings anyway – so you may as well go more natural in the first place.
Where the horse has rubbed themselves raw – I use the neem and coconut oil combination. You could also choose to use something like paw paw cream on where they have rubbed themselves raw. Any lice or eggs under the paw paw would be gone anyway – smothered to death.
I have heard that people also have success with essential oils like lavender and tea tree oil – but I haven’t used those for this purpose personally because they say that about fleas on dogs too and I never had much success with tea tree oil and fleas!
And if a horse is debilitated by lice, i.e thin and lost weight, then look at boosting their immune system – look at mineral deficiencies in your area, add some fresh garlic to their feed for a couple of weeks and maybe browsing a variety of native grasses to self medicate and they are often found out on the nature strip…
And since everything happens for a reason – you may have been drawn to this website to get the FREE LESSONS The 9 Keys to Happiness with Your Horse. You could use getting rid of the lice to get an even deeper connection with each other and have lots of positive things come out of such a yucky problem! You’ll find the link to the 9 Keys right at the top of our Training Programs page here.
Melaleuca Original shampoo with tea tree oil killed the lice on my mini instantly. After a couple of applications, there were no living lice.
Good to know… Unfortunately, here in Australia at least, lice are more likely to be active in the colder weather where I don’t want to shampooing…
Careful with dogs though. It was mentioned in the article about using tea tree on dogs and was ineffective, but it’s also very toxic even at low doses.
That’s weird Dena, there’s tea tree oil soaps everywhere for dogs! I must say my favourite is Diatomaceous Earth. You have to be very careful not to have dust going everywhere though because you don’t want to be breathing it.
Thank you for the information on treating horses with lice. We’ve found lice in are herd of eight and are going to use a combination of DE and Neem oil. Do we need to treat every day for two weeks? Should use neem and DE on the same day or on different days?
I am sorry to hear that, what a pain, specially with so many horses! My advice is Dont use neem around pregnant or wanting to be pregnant mares and or stallions – it changes the hormone of the insect and althtough ive never read any literature cautioning its use, i feel uneasy and I wouldn’t use it in those circumstances myself. Look up the life cycle of lice in case there’s any difference between countries and treat throughout an entire life cycle. Make sure you treat brushes, rugs, saddle blankets, posts that they rub on and anything else you can think of so as to knock them on the head. I’m sure you don’t want to be going back there again!
Sorry Jenny, the comment re sulphur was made by Sue on 11/19/2015…that she “stupidly” thought you used sulphur in horses feeds and she was not contradicted! That’s why I was interested to hear other opinions. Really pleased to hear of your faith in Pat Coleby as her “Natural Horse Care” is full of good ideas and information. Many thanks for replying.
Ahhh now I understand Roni. Thanks! I am not familiar with flowers of sulphur which was why I referred the question to the previous lady who had spoken of it. I am familiar with and use yellow sulphur powder both internally when I felt my land and thus my horses are deficient and I have used it externally on lice. I found that Diatomaceous Earth was a lot more effective than sulphur though.
It’s interesting though, since I moved to a grazing situation where I have longer grass and longer rotations of the herd, I have rarely felt the need for sulphur supplementation and yet at the previous farm, I was supplementing sulphur all the time – it’s a very important mineral.
I see there is a comment about feeding flowers of sulphur internally which was cited as the wrong thing to do. I have started feeding mine 1tbs of sulphur as recommended for a week for severe cases and then to continue with a maintenance dose daily afterwards. This came from Pat Coleby’s “Natural Horse Care” so I would be interested in any comments on this? Am about to search website for sources of food grade D E and also neem oil as backup anyway!
Re your flowers of sulphur comment. Cited where Noni? Who by, who paid for the study – all the hot details please! 🙂 Pat Coleby is an amazing lady – I’ve spoken to her a few times about 15 years ago (some great stories there for another day!) and she was an old lady then. Her book Natural Horse Care is an excellent one. As in all things AND VERY IMPORTANTLY – we need to take responsibility ourselves to check the suitability of a remedy in the uniqueness of our own situation.
Hey Jenny!
It’s me again! I just found out today that my miniature pony has lice…
Do you have anything that would work that is cheap or I can make at home?
I really don’t want to spend $20 odd dollars on lice shampoo for a small pony… ??
Also your greasy heel cream technique works great and my mare’s feet are healing great!
~Aria
$20 sounds cheap to me! Diatomaceous earth is an essential addition in my tool box for lice. Use it on your brushes, on your rugs, under the horses manes, anywhere that the horse rubs, anywhere there could be live or eggs from contact.
Hey Jenny!
I used tea tree oil and some other lice shampoo to wash my pony and so far they are all gone! I also used the tea tree oil and shampoo to wash everything else and I hosed down the paddock fences and and his shelter walls. 🙂 thanks
Let us know how that goes in the long term. 🙂
For goats I would make the sasafrass tea put in a pump sprayer and soak them down boil 8 oz sasafrass to 2 quarts water 15 minutes cool completely
Thanks for that Raetta! I must say I like the Diatomaceous Earth option better than 3 close together Ivermectins, but hey they are such terrible things that I understand people going to any lengths to be rid of them!
Several ways to get rid of them.. Worm your horse every two weeks for 6 weeks with ivermectin. Dust your horse daily with diatomaceous earth.. Make sasafrass tea and soak them in it don’t rinse about 8 oz roit to 2 quarts water boil about 15 minutes let it cool completely before you ok it it on the horse
I have used s.s.s. bathoil from avon for a few things however it hasnt really helped with the lice situation.also apple cider hasnt worked well.
Am about to treat with yellow sulphur but a heads up on applying is pour some into a cheap plastic old sauce bottle poke a reasonable size hole in the lid as this will allow for more to go to a set area especialky along the mane.and it doesnt waste near as much. Follow through the mane to the ends with coconut oil the little suckers cant cling to the hair and the horse will smell good.
I like the old fashioned plastic sauce bottle like you see in cafes because then I can squeeze the bottle and puff it into place… Thanks for the other tips!
Just wondering if anyone tried the sulphur. Too cold to bathe them now…
Yes I have tried sulphur and it did help, but was a phenomenal amount of work to get into all the nooks and crannies and it didn’t completely get rid of them. So I guess in very cold weather you could use it and do them again in a few days and again in a few days. Put the sulphur through a sieve and into a squeeze bottle so that you can “puff ” it up under the belly and into the groin etc. An old bath talc container can work too…
Sasafrass will kill the lice and the nits in only two treatments make a tea soak the horse wait a week to 10 days repeat
Thanks for that Raetta. Can you give us more information? It sounds like you have sassafrass locally – or can you buy the tea to make?. What country are you in, etc?
Hi There, what is sasafrass? is it from a farm supplies? or supermarket? never heard of that so I’m intrigued as struggling to get rid of the lice. thanks, Sue
I’ve emailed Raetta again to ask her to come back with more details.
I picked up some neem oil today from a bloke who makes it. He warned me to wear gloves if I was planning to get pregnant as its a natural contraceptive, which would explain your rooster/hens.
Just thought Id warn other women who might want to get pregnant to be very cautious.
As for me I’m too old to worry!!
Thanks for that extra warning Amanda. Natural contraceptive hmmm… Does that mean that the effects wear off? I wonder???? I have added your extra warning to the body of the article.
how bout “skin so soft”? I use it for fly repellent and it works better than fly sprays, think it will work on lice
Gosh, I’ve never come across that one. That’s an Avon product isn’t it? That would sure smell nicer than a bug spray! There’s a big difference between a repellent and something that will kill lice though. Do you know anyone who might have done that or even something similar?
Does the neem oil mix kill the nits too?
I am not sure whether the eggs are actually killed like bott fly eggs which won’t hatch when they are covered in oil – the problem is resolved so I think so.
Hi Jenny. Great article. I’ve used the non-food grade DE. Doesn’t work. And the food grade is SO expensive. 🙁 I’ve had some success with lemongrass essential oil mixed in a carrier oil. But they keep coming back!!!!!!! On different horses! This is driving me mental!!!! Mine are outside horses. I don’t want to wet them down with ACV or oil in the cold. Any other suggestions? Tnx.
Yes I too found that the swimming pool DE didn’t work. It’s a pain in the butt because the people selling it no doubt know that and keep selling it anyway! I didn’t find the food grade so expensive??? I guess it is in comparison to the swimming pool stuff, but it’s mega cheaper than the nasty chemical that you can buy for horses for lice. Did you check e-bay?
A teaspoon of neem oil in a small jar of coconut oil would work too for outside horses. The oil goes solid in cold. I rub it through the roots of the mane and forelock and on the coat around the base of the tail and through the top of the tail. I have used neem and coconut oil very successfully on mites. DO NOT take the risk of putting neem oil on breeding stock – my rooster is firing blanks now and I am not sure that the neem oil might be reason. Neem oil changes the hormone of the insect so that they can’t breed and I worry that maybe it changed my roosters hormones too…
lice are driving me mad too i’v got 20 goats and catching and keeping them standing long enough to faff about with applications is getting me down as nothing is working! tried sulphar but stupidly thought you put it in the feed so wasted several tubs, while wasting several tubs of barrier louse powder at £10 a tub also didn’t work! so how do you mix the flowers of sulphar to apply through thick fur? can olive oil or coconut oil be applied all over? iv not got horses anymore only goats I’m afraid so hope I’m not too boring for the horse crowd but cant find pet goat owners like myself as others class them as livestock and aren’t too worried about chemicals whereas mine are rescued pets, lice advice please anyone? thanks, Sue
hi jenny, very informative article! just wondering where you can get Diatomaceous earth(food grade)..? i am in gippsland victoria. thanks so much. jay
I bought mine off e-bay. Just double check from the supplier that it IS the super fine food grade, because the first person I bought it off sent me the pool filter stuff which is absolutely NOT OK!
Great, Jenny, thanks. Impressive use of English there as well!
Does this work for feather mites?
Mange is certainly a very nasty thing, so feather mites should be a piece of cake, but I haven’t treated feather mites with this recipe, so I am not sure about that Wendy. It’s cheap and easy enough to be worth a go though! Someone give it a go on feather mites and come back to us.
I found apple cider vinegar is great for killing lice also – rubbed through the main and anywhere else they are !…worked for me – thanks.
Thanks for that Julie – I hadn’t come across that one! You can see Julie’s listing as an equine homeopath and herbalist on the world wide listing for alternative therapists.
cider vinegar worked for you? that gives me hope! funny cus I tried that this morning as used up all my flowers of sulphar and had some cider vinegar so I sprayed some on, do you put in the drinking water or just spray the vinegar on? I’m told it needs to be with sediment Iv been buying bottles from sainsburys which hasn’t so not sure if the farm supplies would be better for this? Thanks, Sue
Hmmm the next person said that cider vinegar DIDn’t work for them. I still think fine food grade Diatomaceous earth is your best bet. It MUST be fine food grade – don’t let anyone con you into the swimming pool stuff it’s useless. I bought mine on ebay from northern queensland. You can buy it with a little puffer thing that makes it possible to puff up underneath their body into the nooks and crannies. Make sure you wear a simple mask from the chemist, you DO NOT WANT TO BE BREATHING THIS KIND OF STUFF.