Fly mesh can vary from lightweight brittle and stiff fabric at one end of the spectrum, to something that resembles shade cloth at the other extreme. The superior fly mesh’s are a soft weave nylon. They are nice and soft – but also strong.
With so many fly mesh rugs on the market – what should you look for?
Fabric Weave. The weave of the mesh is very important – most people need a nice tight weave mesh to keep the smaller biting insects, like sandflies, off your horse. There are many mesh’s that have a looser or more open weave – which won’t be effective in stopping mosquitoes or marsh flies.
At the other extreme, we have seen some mesh that is such a tight weave it won’t allow good airflow. Airflow through the weave is important – often the best way is to hold the mesh up to the light to get an idea of the tightness of the mesh weave if comparing fabrics.
Fabric weight or GSM (grams per square meter) is one of the most important factors with fly mesh. Mesh generally falls in a range from 200gsm to 450gsm. Higher the GSM equates to better strength.
Lower gsm fabric is usually a looser more open weave and a higher gsm is generally a tighter weave.
Colour and Treatment. Colour plays a very important part in insect repelling. Those of us from fly prone areas will know how some colours attract flies and others don’t. Dark colours are generally the worst performing. The pantones we use in our mesh as been tested to be some of the best performing colours.
Some manufactures claim that their mesh fabric is treated to repel insects and that the treatment wears off after x number of machine washes. We have yet to see any noticeable difference between these and standard mesh rugs (except the price).
Should I use Caribu’s 'Deluxe' Mesh or 'EuroMesh' rugs?
Mesh rugs have many advantages over Ripstop rugs in hot weather ,:-
- Cooler, with better airflow, allowing the horses coat to breath helps alleviate itch.
- Similar strength and performance.
- They dry out very quickly after a shower of rain - alleviating itch. While they won’t keep the horse dry they do an excellent job in preventing rain scour.
Our Deluxe 410gsm rugs and our 240gsm Euromesh rugs are very similar, both soft and both featuring good airflow and UV protection - but each fabric has its own advantages.
Deluxe '410gsm Mesh' - The 410gsm rugs are best suited to horses who need ultimate insect protection. This mesh is both strong and uses a tighter, raised mesh weave which offers improve insect protection. The 410gsm mesh is also stronger and ideally suited to horses who are hard on rugs and suffer from itch and insect bites. This mesh has become legendary for its durability and performance.
EuroMesh '270gsm' - The EuroMesh is a revolutionary new style of soft fly mesh. It features a flatter weave mesh. The holes in the mesh are slightly larger. It has the benefit of being a lighter weight rug, which can be slightly cooler, as you have a lighter weight fabric. Still offering good insect protection, its ideal for horses who don't suffer excessively from itch or insect bites and need a cool general use rug.
Breeze '240gsm' - The Breeze mesh we use in our mini mesh rugs as well as our range of hybrid rugs. It has a similar weave to our Deluxe 410gsm mesh and is ideal intermediate option for our hybrid rugs.
