name of the bug

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Hello , Does any one know the name of the bugs that bore in to cattle skin one of our cow have bumps on her .If seen it on horses but I forgot the name of it ,Oh and what do I put on it to make it go away.

thanks in advance . Vince

-- Vince R. (usjersey2002@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002

Answers

chigger??

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), March 31, 2002.

Warbles.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

Warbles?

-- Bernie from Northern Ontario (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

Sure sounds like warble fly. You can "pop" the bumps and extract the larve, but do take care where you press or rather where your face is at the time! My old boss could grind a beer bottle into a lump and pop one out but the connotations were just too gross for a dedicated beer drinker! Spot-on is your weapon of choice.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), March 31, 2002.

In field trials of feeding food grade Diatomaceous Earth to cattle, many improvements were found with the critters. Here's just a couple about warbles:

'After feeding 100 dairy cows on DE for approximately one year, warbles became non-existent.'

'Tests run on purebred Jersey dairy cows given free choice access to food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) showed that after six months warbles problems came to an abrupt halt.'

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.



Where do you buy the food grade diatamaceous earth? I've asked at feed stores and all I get are blank starts. I found it online available from Texas, but of course the shipping is not reasonable. So many people on this forum recommend this, it must be readily available; I just don't know where.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), March 31, 2002.

Vince: The culprit is the common cattle grub, the warble. They are the larvae of a heel fly. The eggs are deposited on the hair, bore into the skin and migrate through the flesh to the back. At some point they may be in nerve tissue, flesh, whatever.

You can pop out the grub when they are in the animal's back, or hook them out with the edge of a dull knive, etc, but you only get the ones that are maturing at that moment.

A does of Ivermectin gets them all, along with all the other external blood suckers and internal vermin (except tapeworms). You have to time the Ivermectin as you can paralyze an animal if you kill all the grubs while some of them are in nerve tissue. The instructions that come with the wormer give the best dates for treatment in the various parts of the country. If you buy the stuff from the feed store by the dose, or from the Vet, ask.

By the way: The patent on Ivermectin must have run out as generics are all over the market now at much lower prices.

Mac

-- Jimmy S (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), March 31, 2002.


Out this direction we call them Bot flies. I have a freind who's mother is from back east (Iowa, Ohio?) I can't remember exactly which state, but she calls them warbles also.

-- Mark (mcford@theofficenet.com), April 01, 2002.

I've heard them called bots, also, but they are not. We have bot flies here, and they become an intestinal parasite.

I am glad to finally know they are called warbles. My mom's little dog had them and the vet did not know what they were. Is there a website with pictures to identify the adult?

-- Laura S. (LadybugWrangler@somewhere.com), April 01, 2002.


Strange that the names vary--when I was a small boy my father referred to them as "wolf worms" or "wolves" because they ate their way thru the animal. The sight of a cow's back after you remove a dozen or three of these wolves is enough to elicit some sympathy for the poor beast. Believe me, a dose of ivermectin is an act of kindness. Mac

-- Jimmy S (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), April 01, 2002.


Bot Fly or maybe Cotarebra (sp)?

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), April 01, 2002.

In my younger years I woked summers on a dairy farm. The farmer I worked for used to remove them using a hot bottle. Heat the bottle and put the opening over the bump. as the bottle cooled it would draw out the critters living in the lump and pop them into the bottle.

-- Paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), April 02, 2002.

http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/insects/g1141.htm#top www.entm.purdue.edu/Entomology/ext/targets/e-series/EseriesPDF/ E- 14.pdf

Here are a couple of sites that have information about the warble or cattle grub. There are lots more, and a good one from texas A&M which address I don't have at the moment. they read as if the time ivomec is applied is important to the health of the cow. I really like the hot bottle method of removing grubs. We used to have somthing called wolves that got on squirles and rabbits, wonder if its the same thing.

-- Sarah S. (sarahs@awod.com), April 06, 2002.


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