Do you check your horse’s coat for bot eggs? Those tiny, yellow little dots that stick to your horse’s hair coat and mane? I don’t find bot eggs on my horses very often. Perhaps bot flies are not prolific in my area. But on the day that I picked up Piper, my new horse, I saw that he had a few small clusters of bot fly eggs on his neck and front legs.
Piper used to live about fifty miles North of me, and I suspect that might have something to do with it. I remember when I boarded my first horse, about thirty miles North of where I now live, he accumulated bot eggs easily. I don’t remember that being much of an issue once I brought him home. I have plenty of insects around my place, but perhaps bot flies are not usually one of them.
For those of you not familiar, here are some resources I found that discuss the issue of bot fly eggs as well as how/why to remove them.
- 2:23 minutes video clip with Dr. Lydia Gray, DVM at Smartpak
https://www.smartpakequine.com/content/video/how-to-remove-bot-eggs-from-horse-s-legs - Short bullet point article and a 46 second video clip from Pro Equine Grooms
https://www.proequinegrooms.com/tips/health-and-well-being/the-bottom-line-on-bots - More lengthy article about all-things bot fly
https://thehorse.com/124776/got-bots/
As for Piper, I was able to buy a $3 bot knife (I couldn’t find the old one I had back in my boarding days) and easily remove them. See the three photo slide-show below.
Do you ever find bot fly eggs on your horses?
The Backyard Horse Blog 