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  Discussion on Could these flies be warble?
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Posted on Monday, Jul 8, 2002 - 6:42 am:

I am in the UK and have recently moved to a new field where cows and sheep graze in very close proximity.
My horses has been attacked by these od flies for the past two days.
They are pretty big black oval looking bugs which attatch themselves to my horses back very tightly.
The previous day I managed to get them off and they flew away.
But yesterday my horse had them on his back again and they were sending him mad. he was bucking and bashing into the gate with his bum to try and get them off his back.

Are these warble fly? Or what else can they be? I really need to have an idea of what they could be as the cattle around us could be infected.

Thanks

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 9, 2002 - 8:13 am:

Warble (Hypoderma sp) flies actually look like furry bees. Without looking at them missA I cannot be sure. Collect a few, put them in alcohol and have your vet identify them and let us know what he says.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 10, 2002 - 7:28 am:

I`ll have a go!

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 27, 2002 - 5:01 am:

Just thought I`d let you know,
They turned out to be Blowfly, as the sheep here were infested with maggots from them but luckily the sheep have now been treated. They seemed attracted to my white horse, maybe they thought he was a sheep!

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 27, 2002 - 7:28 am:

Thank you miss A.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002 - 11:23 am:

There is a picture of a warble fly at https://cal.nbc.upenn.edu/paraav/labs/lab9.htm along with lots of other lovely creepy crawlies - the page isn't very well designed and I found that you have to refresh it several times before all the images appear.

This picture confirmed to me that we do have warble flies in some of our fields - I have seen them and they drive the horses mad. I assumed we didn't because of the major warble eradication scheme which ran in the UK and Ireland for many years and was supposed to be successful...

All the best

Imogen

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002 - 2:21 pm:

Dr O - an afterthought (and yes, I did do a search for warble fly and warble flies on the Advisor...)

My memory on warble flies (which may well be defective) is that as long as your horse is ivermectin-wormed, they are just a biting irritation because they can't effectively parasitise the horse or create those revolting things on the horse's back full of grubs.

Does moxidectin also do the trick with warble flies (since the horses that I look after are all on moxidectin this year...)?

Thanks for any info you have.

By the way, a guy who was working for me cutting back a hedge got bitten by what he says was one (and he was originally a microbiologist so we assume he does know what they look like and wasn't exaggerating...) - he says it came up like a tennis ball and he had to take a heavy dose of anti-histamine to control the swelling.

Thank goodness they don't seem to like me! Even so, I'm not sure I would fancy trying to collect one as you suggested to Miss A...

Imogen

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002 - 4:34 pm:

Hello Imogen,
I guess that is what happens when someone who studies bacteria tries to id insects. Warble flies, (Hypoderma species) just like bot flies (Gasterophilus sp), have neither a stinger nor any functioning mouth parts according to the parasitology texts that I have. As near as I can tell the adults live and die without ingesting food but this is a commmon life style of insects with complex larval forms. Yes, moxidectin controls warbles also.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Aug 29, 2002 - 7:27 am:

If they don't sting then why exactly do cattle and horses hate them so much? I thought warble flies used an extremely sharp ovipositor which was what caused the problem - ie no they don't bite but yes they do attack sometimes and it's rather unpleasant...

All the best

Imogen

Posted on Thursday, Aug 29, 2002 - 10:49 am:

It appears to be simply the noise and the activity of landing and flying off repeatedly that irritates the livestock. The eggs are simply laid on the hair where they stick. They hatch about a week later and at that time the larvae penetrate the skin.
DrO
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