GRUBS IN THE HEADS. OF SHEEP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1565, 5 October 1886, Page 2

GRUBS IN THE HEADS. OF SHEEP.

TO tHK BCITOR. Sir, —ln your issue of Thursday lad j I note a local headed "An item for sheep breeders," in which, you discribe the presence of certain )af?se, or , grubs, io the carities of the skull of two lambs (which I presume were last year's lambs, or hoggets). You mention thi fact as an extraordinary phenomenon, to which all local breeders and butchers seem to be strangers. It was .ho stranger with * breeders, feeders, or. butchers, in Old England thirty years ago,! but a regular complaint, demanding a timely remedy, or cauiing poverty, and »ftan dsath, in the flock. On landing here seme 26 years ago, fresh from the care of sheep (daily shepherded, and wrefu'ly inspected at least twice a day in summer time), I was struck with notable fact that Sheep, rambling at large o?ef the hills and

plaint of Canterbury, and mustered only two br throe times in the year, aheuld be exempt from this complaint, as well aa the ravages of tbe maggots blown daily in England, on any wet breeched sheep and devouring him io some 48 hours. This " grub in the head," which we commonly "termed it, was caused by a fly, which in the autumn deposited its egg*, or blows, on the nostril* of the abeep, causing irritation, and consequent sniffing. This carried the egga mto the cells of the head where theypasßed tbe winter, gradually developed into tbe grub, which grew to tbe size of a Urge bee grub. as the weather became warmer, it grew lively, and it's motioi caused irritation, which made the sheep run about with their beads to the ground, and suffer with apparent catarrh. Our remedy was simple, vi» : A goose feather dipped in spirits of turpentine, and thrust up the nortril to a parallel witb'the eyes. This caused the death of the grabs, with violent sneezing of sheep, and consequent ejection of grubs on the floor or yards. —I am, etc., E. PILBBOW. Temukn. t>ber2,lßß6. I