Mixed farmer Geoff Teasdale has lived and farmed in Badgingarra for 50 years and for a long time, along with his four working dogs and cattle, has dealt with the irritating biting of stable flies.
The biting pest is common to the Shire of Gingin, and is formally recognised in 10 other shires as being a problem.
Following a visit from a delegation of Japanese entomology students last month, Mr Teasdale told Farm Weekly that stable fly was often overlooked at the Shire of Dandaragan, where the flies breed in poultry manure, as opposed to vegetable waste like at the Shire of Gingin.
The Shire is home to a number of commercial poultry farms which are required to self-manage their poultry waste.
Poultry waste from these farms can be available for purchase, as its nutrient qualities make it an affordable fertiliser, however if not left to dry correctly, or left in piles, it becomes a breeding ground for stable fly.
The Shire of Dandaragan does not acknowledge stable flies as being a pest in the area, voting against formal recognition at a council meeting in 2019.
Because of this, it does not have a stable fly management plan.
About the same time, Mr Teasdale and a group of concerned farmers met with Shire representatives, prompting them to require one of the poultry farms, AAA Egg Company to either compost or pelletise chicken manure, to no avail.
On its website, AAA Egg Company said its manure was air-dried in sheds and is "supplied free from fly activity".
Chris Verran, from AAA Egg Company confirmed the manure from their caged chickens was air-dried, however said it wasn't possible to dry the manure from their barn and free range chickens.
All manure is sold from each type of farm.
Mr Verran said AAA Egg Company didn't have a problem with stable flies at any of its farms, but if they saw any activity from other types of fly around the manure, they added a supplement to the chicken feed, preventing the flies from laying eggs.
Manure that ends up being stored for longer periods of time is usually sprayed with insecticide.
Shire of Dandaragan chief Brent Bailey said over the past two years, only two complaints have been made by one farmer - Mr Teasdale.
Mr Teasdale said he presented his own sticky traps to the Shire which were covered in stable flies, and said when the Shire used their own traps, it reported catching about half a dozen flies over a few hours.
"That's just complete rubbish, you can catch half a dozen in the first minute when they're really bad in October," Mr Teasdale said.
The Shire said its environmental officer reached out to a nearby poultry farm to see if any manure had been sold in the area, and the farmer also spoke to his neighbours to see if they had purchased manure, and no one had.
"The Shire is awaiting a site visit from DPIRD (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development) to assist in reviewing local complaints and stable fly populations," Mr Bailey said.
"The Shire continues to work with DPIRD and the Shire of Gingin's stable fly officer to monitor local activity."
Mr Bailey said the Shire works with local poultry producers to prevent poultry waste from causing a stable fly outbreak.
"Education, planning conditions and monitoring activities are undertaken by our environmental health officer and development services team to mitigate risks," Mr Bailey said.
A spokesperson from DPIRD said stable fly management was a shared responsibility between local government, the department and individuals.
"Under the Biosecurity and Agriculture (BAM) Management Act, stable fly is a declared pest for 14 local government areas on the Swan Coastal Plain," a spokesperson said.
"This does not include the Shire of Dandaragan, which is not known to be an area where there are significant populations of stable fly.
"DPIRD's Stable Fly Management Plan 2019 provides information on controlling stable fly, and outlines industry and land users' obligations to remove stable fly breeding environments and reduce the population.
"Primary producers and the general public are encouraged to report stable flies agitating horses and livestock or biting humans and pets to their Local Government environmental health officer."
In addition to stable fly, Mr Teasdale said he had chicken manure run off into his dam and creeks from nearby paddocks.
When he has raised the issue, he said it had fallen on deaf ears, believing the Shire has chosen "the easy way out" by not addressing the problem.
"It's frustrating because I've taken evidence into the Shire and they didn't acknowledge it at all, it's like it doesn't exist," he said.
"My poor dogs, the little fellas' get their ears chewed up in the early summer period."
Mr Teasdale suggested some landholders who didn't run livestock were "inconsiderate" with their manure use.
He said the problem had prompted some farmers to move livestock out of the area and residents to move away from the smell
"People really don't know just how bad it can be," Mr Teasdale said.
"I don't believe people should have to live under that situation."
