Bot eggs driving me crazy...

warbles and bots definitely aren't the same thing!

Warbles are, I swear to god, the grossest things ever. My pony had one when I was a kid and it was rank!

Steak knives are good for removing bot eggs :)
 
The ones I remember from the 1970s were warbles then. There were little eggs on the horses' legs and we'd see the insects flying round the yard, a bit like wasps but with long curved abdomens. They looked like flying commas.

We caught one in a jar and a girl who worked at Liverpool University's Zoology dept took it in to be identified. They said it was a warble. There were LOADS of them :(

We used to scrape the eggs off, and wipe with something but I can't remember what it was now. Spirit of some type.
 
This is quite an interesting post, ive actually Googled it (as im sure you all have now), bought up some pretty grim images.
I would say they are part of the same family, i think you would need to speak to someone who was into insects to actually clarify. Im guessing the Warbles lay their eggs under the skin & Bots lay on the skin, as bots are ingested where as Warbles burrow out of the skin, if that makes sense?

If you read this link, it describes the life cycle of a Bot (no burrowing under the skin).
http://www.equimaxhorse.com/parasites/bots

This is copied from DEFRA.

Life cycle of the warble fly

Adult warble flies are hairy and about the size of small bees with yellow-orange abdomens. The fly lays eggs on the hair of cattle during summer. After about 4 days larvae hatch and migrate into the skin. The larvae move between muscle layers to either the oesophagus or the spinal canal where the larvae stay dormant during winter. In late winter or early spring the larvae migrate to the tissue under the skin on the back where they mature for about 30 days. The larvae then drop off the host animal and pupate in soil. The fly emerges after about 36 days.There are two species of Warble Fly: Hypoderma bovis andHypoderma lineatum.

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/warblefly/
 
Bot flys and warble flys are different.

Bot flys are big, slow moving flys that appear to fly vertically with their body curled round like a comma. They are very determined and usually lay their eggs in clusters on the horses' legs. You will see lots of tiny little yellow eggs, very obvious unless you have a palomino!

This year I have only seen one bot fly, it was really upsetting the pony but we managed to kill it and strangely it had just laid a little cluster of eggs on the pony's neck.

Warble flys are the ones that cause lumps on the animal. I haven't see one on a horse for years. You used to have to treat your cattle for warble fly but I'm pretty certain that if it isn't eradicated completely in this country then there aren't any down south. We certainly don't have to treat our cattle anymore.

I could be wrong but wasn't it the warble fly that the sound it made used to drive the cattle crazy and stampede away from it?
 
Ok this answers the question to the post I've just put up. They are really bad I've not seen them for at least 4 yrs. so much so my bot egg knife has been used to cut Baling twine and that's it. But it's back to work now
 
jodie3 said:
Bot flys and warble flys are different.

Bot flys are big, slow moving flys that appear to fly vertically with their body curled round like a comma. They are very determined and usually lay their eggs in clusters on the horses' legs. You will see lots of tiny little yellow eggs, very obvious unless you have a palomino!

This year I have only seen one bot fly, it was really upsetting the pony but we managed to kill it and strangely it had just laid a little cluster of eggs on the pony's neck.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Now those sound exactly like my description in my previous post, of the things Liverpool Uni said were warbles! I give up. Completely confused. :confused3:
 
after reading this thread it is making me itch and prickle!!! it would be nice if we could eradicate the bot fly too....... gross little things that look like wasps and have me (and the horse) running in the opposite direction!

however....from the description of the warble it sound if we had one a few years ago...horse got a 'lump' on the neck and it grew for a few days...ended up working quite hard and it 'burst'...then disappeared...no problem or seen anything like that since
it was a 'fluidly' lump that traveled down his neck and had a scabby/peaky bit on it....... may be it was a warble?
 
TandD said:
after reading this thread it is making me itch and prickle!!! it would be nice if we could eradicate the bot fly too....... gross little things that look like wasps and have me (and the horse) running in the opposite direction!

however....from the description of the warble it sound if we had one a few years ago...horse got a 'lump' on the neck and it grew for a few days...ended up working quite hard and it 'burst'...then disappeared...no problem or seen anything like that since
it was a 'fluidly' lump that traveled down his neck and had a scabby/peaky bit on it....... may be it was a warble?
Click to expand...

This has actually reminded me of something else - about 4 years ago my mare had something very similar... fluidy lump in her side just behind where your leg goes formed then turned into a small open creater in her flesh... looked embarressingly like id stabbed her in the side with a spur. Could be an innocent fly bite type thing but dont know.

I dont quite know how they can say they are fully eradicated and whether most people would even recognise one!
 
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