THE BOT FLY.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 February 1914, Page 4

THE BOT FLY.

This is the time of the year when

the female bot fly lays her eggs. The little yellow tenacious bodies one sees on the shoulders and forelocks, but mostly on the inside and back of the knee-joints of the horse, are the eggs. They are hatched by the heat of the bod}', and the little embryos cause an itching ' sensation at the roots of the hairs to which the eggs are attached. The horse then licks the part, and the newly hatched embryos are carried to the mouth, from thence to the stomach where they fasten themselves on to the circular part of that organ, as it is only in the horse's stomach that these insects wiildevelope into the well-known bots. They remain in stomach in this condition for about nine months, and vary in length from -gin. to lin., and are generally found in clusters. The stmoach of the horse is the winter quarters of this insect ppst. In the late spring and eai'ly summer months they lose their hold , mix with the food and are carried along the intestinal canal and finally deposited among the droppings on the ground when they tnrn into chrysalides, which in due time turn into the perfect fly Aestius egui. Although bots may not be the immediate cause of death, ye*, when numerous, they introduce great derangement of the stomach and general debility, and although a great variety of medicines have from time to time been tried, yet there is not any real agent that will cause them to leave their hold and be expelled. They must pass their allotted time in their natural winter quarters. When the little yellow tenacious eggs are seen at daytime and harvest ou the limbs of bots should be j craped off with a knife, or, better still, singed off with a s:ng«ing lamp oi candle. This process is simple, and is a much better and saler plan than allowing the life blood of the horses to be slowly drained away by the presence of these pests in the stomach.