be the case if there are many, say fifty, or even up to a hundred, in
the same animal. In such cases the yield of milk will be considerably
diminished. Holes, too, are present in the skin, which, though they may
close again, if the animal remains alive, always leave a thin place. The
outer surface of meat from animals infested with warbles is dirty
yellow, flaccid, or even soft and jelly-like (“licked beef”); it must be
scraped off. _Enemies_: Starlings settle, in spring, on the backs of
infested cattle, and seize the parasites with their beaks. Starlings,
rooks, and wagtails destroy the maggots ready to become pupæ, as they
lie on the ground. _Remedies_: Washing the back, shoulders, and loins
with vinegar extract of walnut leaves during the summer, to keep away
the bot flies. In spring: squeezing out the maggots from the warbles,
having previously opened them, when necessary, with a penknife. If the
warble is “ripe,” _i.e._ if it has opened so far that the black hinder
end of the maggot can be seen, the opening may be stopped with fat or
cart-grease, by which the larva will be killed where it lies.
The =Sheep Bot Fly= (_Œstrus ovis_),
two-fifths to three-quarters of an inch long, yellowish grey, almost
hairless; head large, round, reddish; thorax grey, with small black
warts; abdomen yellowish white; legs short, bright; wings of a glassy
clearness. The flies are found (in September) on the walls of
sheepfolds, and in woods near which sheep graze. On sunny days the
female flies round the sheep, in order to deposit her brood upon them.
The sheep threatened press their nostrils to the ground, though this is
not of much use. The maggots are hatched while still in the body of
their mother, and are deposited by her on the margins of the nostrils.
These little maggots creep about on the mucous membrane lining the
internal cavities of the nose, causing intolerable itching. The sheep
try to get rid of the intruders by shaking their heads and rubbing their
noses on the ground. The maggots, however, creep further into the nasal
cavities, and get into the hollows of the frontal bone and upper jaw,
perhaps even into the horns. In these places they feed on the fluid
which their presence causes the mucous membrane to give out in large
quantities. The maggots remain as such for nine months, during which
time they alter their shape in various ways. Those just born are white,
one-twenty-fifth of an inch long, while those which have reached the
length of two-fifths of an inch are yellowish white. Individuals ready
to become pupæ are about an inch long, yellowish brown, with dark
transverse lines; they wander back to the nasal cavities and thence to
the exterior, often being expelled by sneezing. In the soil they become
pupæ, first of a brown, then of a black colour, within the larval skin;
the flies emerge in six or seven weeks. Different maggots develop at
different rates, according to the nature of the cavities into which they
penetrate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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