Why don't botflies kill you?

[Baitball Blogger]

And on that note, I'll allow the more curious time to get informed and compose your responses.

[MarvinGardens]

1. Because a good parasite doesn't kill its host.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. But, they get under the skin, in your head.

And they get big!! How does that not create problems?

[Cirque du So-What]

3. No true parasite...

kills its host. Kinda disrupts the life cycle, yunno.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Although that makes sense,

I know that animals can be infested with colonies of them and I just don't see how an infection can't bring the whole gravy train to a halt.

[beachbum bob]

5. why kill the host?

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Spoiler Alert:

I just saw a video of a removal and can't see how it wasn't large enough to extend into the brain.

[Kali]

7. They can,

but in general they don't. we have them in the fall in cattle, they are called warbles or grubs and they make gross lumps on the animals's backs. sometimes people pop them out and they are huge maggot/grubs. they give me the heebeejeebees but don't actually seem to hurt the cows at all. they cause a price drop if you sell the animal because the hide is ruined (the grub makes a little air hole to breath through and it weakens the leather if the hide is harvested while they are present) they crawl out of the hole later in the winter to pupate in the ground and everything heals up, cycle starts over in early summer with heel flies. they lay the eggs on longer hair at lower portions of legs. when they hatch they get in the skin and travel through the body until they get to the back where they make a hole to breathe and rest for a couple of months.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. ...

But thanks for the info.

[Kali]

9. LOL yeah that is how they make me feel

I would need extreme sedation if I knew there was something like that in me!

[csziggy]

10. On horses here we use Ivermectin wormer which not only kills worms in the gut it kills botfly larva

We used to see the little yellow eggs on the horses legs but it's been years since they have appeared. It's great because the botfly larva are disgusting!

Most of the cattle owners here inject their stock with the liquid ivermectin. With horses that can cause abscesses at the injection site but we found that we could buy the liquid used for injections and squirt it into the horses's mouths. Now there are paste wormers in individual tubes though that is much more expensive, it is slightly easier to administer.

Back when we were squirting the liquid one of my mares got really tricky. She act cooperative but right when I'd push the plunger she'd put her tongue up against the hole in the syringe. The liquid would come right back and spray me in the face. A few times I got it in my mouth and I really can't blame the horses for objecting. It is vile tasting stuff.

The good news is that not do my horses not have worms, neither do it.

[Kali]

11. bleagh, some of that you can taste just from getting it on your hands

yeah a lot of people use pour-ons or feed-throughs but there are a couple reasons I don't use any of it unless I have a sick or weak animal that is obviously loaded - mostly we are so dry that worms have a rough time, so low parasite loads in general, 2 I believe they can be selected for some degree of immunity, and third the side effect of killing all the insects that cycle manure. for cattle on pasture or range we can really stop a lot of it by breaking the cycle with good movement/rotation through pastures.

as for the hosses...since we don't have much cross pollination of other horses or traveling off ranch with ours, they get the same theory and treatment as the cattle.