Bot Fly

What is it?

A bot fly is a big bumble bee like fly that will lay eggs on your horses fur. The eggs will be there through the winter season and then the ones left on your horse will hatch in to larva. The larva can burrow into the horses skin and it will stay there as long as it needs till it becomes a fly. When they burrow into the skin it can cause irritation to the horse if a saddle was to be put on over it. Making it so you cant ride. The eggs hatch when they are heated up my the horses skin or the summer heat.

If your horse licks themselves and gets the eggs in there mouth and eats them the eggs will hatch and borrow into the side of your horses stomach. when the eggs turn into larva the larva will stay in the horses stomach till summer when they will come out with your horses waste and later they will become flies. this process will continue until all the bot flies are removed. That can be a tricky problem. The eggs are so tiny that you may mistake then to be seeds from plants at first.

Bot Fly Eggs

How to prevent it

Some easy ways to prevent the eggs from being clayed on your horse it to keep him/her well fly sprayed so the bot fly wont want to land on them. Late summer and early fall is the laying season so you want to make sure you keep those flies away. You can also worm your horse with a variety of horse wormers that say they kill bot fly larva.

If your horse already has bot fly eggs on them, then you need to carefully remove them. You can do this by taking a bot fly stone and scraping the eggs off, or use a serrated knife. when using a knife be very careful not to cut your horse. During this process the human can also be infected. You want to make sure you don't let the eggs get under your finger nails or in your hair. I've never had a bot fly in or on me but i'm sure its not fun! You must also make sure your worm your horse with wormer that states to kill bot flies to get rid of any that your horse might have swallowed.

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