bots

[rforsyth1984]

Spent yesterday scraping bot eggs off my ned - all the horses in our field (and ones in other fields) have them.

Worming is only compulsary 3 times a year on our yard, the next time being October. Some people won't worm at any other time, so I'm guessing its pointless to worm my horse now?

Will this be ok? I'm going to check him over and remove eggs every day, and use a decent wormer that does bots when they move fields in October?

 

[flyingfeet]

Worming now won't help for bots, as you have to wait for horse to lick the eggs and then the larvae to hatach and make their way to the gut. Hence the october worm should get the critters.

However re the scraping, nettex have a bot egg remover which makes easy work of removing them.

You can also patrol and swat the bots with one of those electic bats as they don't fly very fast!! (We don't get many though!)

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

You worm for bots after the first frosts which will kill off the adult flies. Waste of time before that as the adults can continue laying eggs. Usually about November/December. As CotswoldSJ says, it's still a good idea to religiously scrape bot eggs off so your ned doesn't ingest too many of the 'orrible little things!

 

[rforsyth1984]

Thanks very much, the yard worming dates are mid October, January and April, so maybe its ther Jan one we do bots... anyway, you have put my mind at rest, so thankies!