What was this crazy fly?

shadowboy

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Ok there was a really huge fly thing that looked like a hornet annoying the horses today- really annoying the, kind of chasing them round the field and the horses were bucking and running out the way. We brought them in for a while to re-flyspray them- anyone know what it was called? Does it harm them in anyway?
 
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Bot fly. They have no mouths and their sole goal in life is to lay eggs on your horses!

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I didnt know they have no mouth!!!!
 
Me neither till the other day when I was researching them LOL!! I found it fascinating so I have been telling every single person I know about it!!
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They all think I am so clever
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not sure we still have bot flies over here. There has been a massive increase in hornets and i expect it was one. Crab flies; are'nt those those red flies that are found mostly in the New forest? and hide in the crook of the leg or as on the case of my poor stallion between his testicles!!!! ooo it makes you wince just thinking about it.
 
Here's the little critters!! This is the time of year for them so they will be everywhere for the next couple of weeks. Some horses don't mind them, others absolutely freak, but don't worry they don't bite but you will see lots of yellow eggs on your horses fur:

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yeh i think they are more round the nf actually,i would say more like a horse fly !!
we still have bot flys as my boy keeps coming in with blasted bot eggs over him !!
they do my head in !!!!
 
We havent seen many yellow eggs on the beasts this year so im not sure if it was a bot fly or not, although i have only really been checking the legs as thats where i normally expect the eggs to be.
 
You don't have bot flies anymore in England? Since when? Well that is good news if it's true as those nasty yellow eggs were such a pain trying to get them off the horses fur.
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I am trying to eradicate them from my area - there aren't many livestock around where I live and every year I have seen a decrease in them. None of my horses have the eggs on them this year and yet at my friends farm no more than 30 miles away, his horses are covered in yellow speckles.
 
Bot flies are really common accross the UK

If you see yellow / cream hard to remove pin head size blobs on your horse's legs you need to remove them!

I use a bot knife and nettex bot egg remover
 
Woah! If you want to see Super-Horseflies come over here! OMG I have never seen anything like them!! And do they bite!
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no sorry not bot flies i meant warble flies as these used to cause a lot of trouble especially those from cattle areas i was having a brain ache!!
 
You're right! One of my childhood ponies had a warble fly but I've never seen them around for many many decades now. I wonder what happened to them?
 
really? bigger than an inch and a half long? that's the biggest i've seen... it totally freaked out my very calm mare... she lost it like i've never seen her lose it, ever. thank god it went off... it was like a flippin' helicopter!
 
And they will take a chunk the size of a match head out of your horse! Nasty critters.

You don't have deer flies over there though do you? They are arrow-shaped monsters that live in the forest and eat the back of your horses ears....making them bleed....hence mine all wear pretty hats.
 
i think Warble fies were irradicated by insectiside thats why i thought they were all gone!! they were awful the eggs were laid under the skin the maggots that are under the skin then eat the flesh yuck yuck and then they emerge as flies!!!
 
Have warble flies been stopped by the wormers that we now use???? Sure i read that somewhere lately???

And how come my horse never gets any bot eggs on him, but the horse he shares the field with gets loads????? Why dont they like my horse :-(
 
deer flies? no idea, but we do have a new fly i've never seen before, black and white pattern on a delta-wing shape (fat triangle of wings), just over half an inch long i'd guess. it bites like a horsefly... the horses and me. (one bit me on the bare leg last week. i felt it do it, like an injection, and saw it. luckily it came back for more so i squashed it.
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those aren't deer fly, are they?
 
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