Horse Care: Bot Flies
It’s that time of year when the bot flies come around and they drive a horse crazy because they lay eggs on them. If you’re new to horses you may find your horse out in the pasture running around like crazy and it’s because a bot fly is after them. If your horse is close and standing still you can try to swat the bot fly down and kill them. Be careful doing this because you don’t want to scare you horse and get kicked.
A bot fly will remind you of a bee in fact when some people first see them they think it is a bee. The bot fly lays eggs on your horse and they wind up scratching or rubbing them off getting them in their mouth and ingest them. There are a couple of things you can do to deal with the eggs.
The eggs are laid mostly on the legs, but you will also find them on the flank areas, along the girth area and sometimes on the neck and mane. You’ll be able to see the eggs they are yellow and stand out although they are a little harder to see on a white horse.
What you can do is apply some oil I prefer coconut oil, but you can also use vegetable oil it will suffocate the eggs. The best practice is to take a grooming block and scrape them off. You’ll use the long sharp side of the block to scrape them off, but don’t do this where they eat take them some place where they will not be eating or grazing. You don’t want them picking up the eggs and ingesting them.
So have you noticed your horse running around like crazy? What tips do you have for dealing with the bot eggs leave a comment below.