Mystery Fly?

[Honeyb060674]

Got a call today on my way to the yard. My friend had to bring Honey in from the field as she was going beserk, cantering up and down all hysteric and sweating. YO says theres a certain type of fly (only needs one) looks a bit waspish but with a longer sting, will target one animal and pester it like mad. It wasn't horsesflies as she never reacts so violently, has any one any idea what it could be?

 

[Bossanova]

bot fly
b*stard things, but very easy and very satisfying to kill.
Worst ones are crab flies, they're awful

 

[berry]

Probally a bot fly.
We have got some weird flys out in our common at the mo they look like gigantic wasps, at first i thought they were hornets but they seem to really pester the horses and i didnt think hornets did that??

 

[Honeyb060674]

Well I thought bot fly but YO didnt know what it was, and she said they take a damn good whack to kill em! She did say they looked like a wasp...might be same thing you saw Berry. What ever it was poor old Honey nearly climbed over my friend to get out of the field (good thing shes only 14.1!) she was all sweat up and worried...took a scoop of mix to calm her nerves!

 

[Clodagh]

Bit flies make a really funny whiney noise when they fly, some how animals learn that and go berko if they hear it. Poor things, we don't seem to get them around here anymore, thankfully. I remember 20 odd years ago scraping the eggs off the horses legs with a knife.
Abbey diagnostics are doing a bot watch - http://www.abbeydiagnostics.co.uk/news.htm

 

[Honeyb060674]

They are the little yellow sticky eggs aren't they?

 

[serena2005]

thats weird, down the bridle path there are these hugh black flys they are like 2 inches long and about an inch wide! it stung one of the horses while it was out and that went mad for ages running up and down the fence. i dont know what sort of fly it was though, nasty looking thing

 

[Honeyb060674]

Must be freak fly season, I haven't known it this bad for ..well...ever! My poor pony was traumatised (briefly) then she went back to yelling her head off to go out with her mates again!

 

[RachelB]

Yes flies are bad this year, we had a huge swarm of flying ants plaguing our yard yesterday, it was horrible! Loads of horseflies are following us up from the woods nearby as well, then bothering the horses in the fields. Argh!
Bot flies sound like a mower about half a mile off...! Best way to kill them (if you're not as brave as Boss and can't kill them with your bare hands!) is to hit them hard so they fall to the ground, then stamp on them quick!

 

[tiggie]

We have fly/wasp things up here that are called warble flys,They are huge and quite slow moving and really pester the horses.I think they mainly affect cattle and lay an egg which then grows under the cows/horses skin.yuk.
Anyone else heard of these?

 

[SummerStorm]

[ QUOTE ]

Worst ones are crab flies, they're awful

[/ QUOTE ]

Too right they are - I hate the things but I've never found a successful way of killing them. The don't drown, move too fast to be stamped on, are too hard to be squashed in your hand as they just end up in a little ball which unravals itself the moment you stop squishing it...

 

[scrat]

I've found that one way to catch a crab fly is to put a blob of fly gel or any thick cream, like sudocrem over the fly which imobilizes it so you can squidge it!! This is really only practical if they appear while you are in the yard and have stuff to hand. I've used liberal amounts of gel/cream up between horses legs as crab flies tend to like those areas. They really do seem indisructable!! We've had bot flies already and also the very large horse flies (about 3cm long with stripy body and huge eyes). I know the horse flies have a very nasty bite, no wonder the horses panic when they hear one.

 

[henryhorn]

Definitely a bot fly, nothing else except a hornet generates such panic, and a hornet is massive and yellow and black stripes like a huge wasp.
You can swat them effectively with your hand then stand on them, that's what we do..
Those millions of tiny yellow eggs you will now see on their legs are from them, the horse licks them off, swallows them, they hatch inside then pass out again to repeat the cycle.
Horrid things another method is fly spray if the horses will tolerate it, one zap and they're dead..

 

[SpruceRI]

Went down to the field the other day to find my shetland pony running up and down the fence line frantically swishing his tail and dripping in sweat. Vey unusual as flies don't normally bother him and he's rarely active enough to work up a sweat normally!!! Ran around the field after him with bucket and water brush in hand to wash him off as he was puffing so much I thought he was going to have a heart attack! He was being plagued by a massive buzzing insect which I managed to splatter with the brush. It looked like a cross between a giant horsefly and a bumblebee. It was a dusky brown/grey colour. As my pony had new bot eggs on his belly I decided this must be a bot fly.

As to crab flies, we don't get them down where we are but I bought 2 New Forest foals a few years ago that came carrying these disgusting critters. I found you could catch them as they scuttled across the horses' coat and only way to kill them was to crush them between your fingers. I caught one live and it lived in a sealed plastic bag for 10 days whilst I asked everyone I could think of what it was. My farrier knew as his sister lived on the forest. Horrible things.

 

[tashyisaudrey]

yeh my horse is very sensitive to the flies. Waspy thing came near her the other day and she went mental. crab flies are well annoying and upset her a lot. the bot eggs are well hard to get off their legs too. good job she's chestnut so I can spot them easily. Seriously, lots of bugs about though.