Horn -fly — Bofs 331 



This mixture is brushed over the surface of the hair as 

 often as may be necessary. There are some excellent 

 anti-fly remedies on the market that can be applied in a 

 fine spray from an instrument made for that purpose. 

 As the flies deposit their eggs in fresh manure, their re- 

 production can be stopped by spreading the manure 

 where it will dry rapidlj^ 



BOTS IN HORSES 



Bots are the larval form of the bot-fly ( GastropMlus 

 equi) . The adult female is about the size of a honey- 

 bee. She is frequently seen during the latter part of the 

 summer flying about horses and depositing her small 

 yellow eggs on the hair of the legs, breast and other 

 parts of the body. When these eggs become moistened 

 by the horse's biting them from the hair, they hatch, and 

 the young larv^ make their way from the horse's mouth 

 down his throat and attach themselves by two small 

 hooks to the mucous lining of the stomach. Here they 

 remain during the fall, winter and spring. In the early 

 summer they loose their hold upon the stomach, pass 

 out with the dung, burrow into the ground and pupate. 

 The adult fly soon emerges and, after mating, deposits 

 her eggs, and the life -cycle is complete. 



The larvae, or "bots" as they are commonly called, 

 are frequently found by the hundreds attached to the 

 walls of the stomach (Fig. 51); and yet practically no 

 bad effects have been observed in living animals. It is 

 possible that, in some instances, they may mechanically 

 block the passage from the stomach into the intestines. 



