INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FARM ANIMALS 

 SHEEP PESTS 



Sheep botfly or head maggot ^ (Gisfrus oz'is) 

 Order — Diptera. Manual, p. 478 



The adult insect is a two-winged fly that deposits 

 living maggots in the nostrils of sheep ; the maggots 

 pass upward into the nasal sinuses ; accounts record 

 the presence of the maggots in the brain ; the mag- 

 gots attach themselves to the delicate membranes 

 by means of two hooks and feed upon the mucous 

 secretions, causing catarrh and staggers ; when full- 

 grown the maggots are sneezed out through the 

 nostrils and go into the ground to undergo their 

 transformations; the flies are most active in June 

 and July; the maggots live in the nose about ten 

 months; the adults have no functional mouth-parts 

 and do not feed. 



Control — Plow a piece of land in pasture and 

 harrow until fine and dusty for sheep to stand on; 

 smear noses often in summer with equal parts of 

 tar and grease; bore holes in a log and put salt in 

 them after w^hich smear edges of holes with tar and 

 grease; no medicine will reach grubs; do not use a 

 wire in nostrils. 

 Itch or scab ^ (Psoropfes communis var. ovis) 

 Order — Acarina 



Sheep scab is strictly a contagious disease and is 

 responsible for much loss among western sheep 

 growers, through death of animals and damage to 



1 Osborn— U. S. Bu. Ent., Bull. 5, p. 102. 



2 Salmon and Stiles — U. S. Bu. An. Ind., Bull. 21. 

 Tmes— U. S. Dept Agr., Par's' Bull. 713. 



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