That’s about enough to gag a maggot!

It was much larger than I thought warbles get. Once I saw it dig enough, I would have smashed it out of existence, before it could go to its next life stage.

Keith

So was the rabbit trying to scratch it off or was it causing some nerve damage from being burrowed in?

That juvenile rabbit died the next day not long after removing that large parasite.

Same thing with the kittens I had that had one.

Trunuff...kill it

My wife is always watching these medical shows. Quite often we see people who travel to foreign countries come back with lumps or sores on their heads. They go to the doctor because they say it feels like something is crawling around in their head. Often it is diagnosed that they have bot fly larva burrowed into their scalp. They get them out by smearing vaseline over the tiny hole causing the lava to come to the surface because of the lack of oxygen. They are then extracted.

Squash, with undo haste.

Osky

does the host die from something transmitted by the parasite or by tissue/wound it causes?

~

We called them wolves. Found on early season squirrels mostly.

Yup during milking cows back in the early 50s in between changing milkers and carry milk to cooler tank used to pop warbles out of cows back. Wasnt easy popping them out either.

Found 3 on a muskrat once,and also see them on mice occasionally.
One reason summer moose or caribou hides are not always the best for tanning is the bot fly holes in the skin.

Caught a chipmunk in a Victor mouse trap.
The bar smacked it in the skull and killed it about a foot from the trap.
3 of them bots came out of it and were on the concrete floor near dead not far from it.
Amazed me, 3 of em !
Caught/shot several more, checked and ALL of them had at least 1 bot.
Poor little buggers. Had to be painful.

Saw a guy on TV, had one near his belly button. Called it his little buddy.
He wanted to let it complete its cycle, but got too painful near the end, so he had the Dr. dig it out.

I remember an article by Major Boddicker, where he went to Africa and purposely came back with one on his head so he could pop it out in front of family members!

The ones in our area on cattle were from Heel flies that had the cream colored grubs growing along the spine area. We called them warbles. I have never seen the bot fly or their grubs.

Bryce

On your last picture you can see two dark spots, those are the breathing air tubes for the larvae once it has come to the skin surface.
Many of the adult flies are minics of bumblebees, the ones that parasite chipmunks stay around their entrance holes and lay their eggs on the chippys coming out.
Ones on ground squirrels lay their eggs via a stinger......and they can and do hurt when an egg is laid. To have the larvae grow in your arm for several months; then the hole appears
and out comes the knife

Not sure why you let that thing go

Never seen one on any kind of critter but have heard old folks talk about them.

Have heard of people getting them off of cows with a coke bottle. Mouth of bottle over spot and pop the end of bottle which squirts the bug out

Wow ! I can totally see that working ! (never have tho)

Same here, haven't seen one in years, but before modern medicines the cows used to get them, and have seen cow dogs get them also.