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Bot Flies

elve

Banned
:x Yes - the dreaded Bot Fly season will soon be on us again - as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer they'll crawl out of hibernation and try and kill our bunnies with maggots - ugh! :evil:

This winter I've found several flies on different occasions (big bluebottle types that is - house flies are harmless) hibernating IN MY HUTCHES!!! :x

They crawl in any little gap in sheds etc, and I've even found them indoors hibernating in curtain pelmets, waiting for Spring!

So - have a check around the eaves of wooden sheds and hutches, where the roof joins on - they are easy to kill at this time of year as the cold makes them very slow - I hate killing them (or anything) but I'd hate them killing my bunnies more!
 
You could hang sticky fly paper from the roof out of the bunnies reach I guess. We havn't really had much really cold weaher for killing off last years bugs :?
 
I was just thinking about the fact that the flies will be around soon too (especially with this weird mild weather). I try to use a solution of Citricidal (grapefruit seed extract), to spray around, as it's a natural anti bacterial, anti viral, parasite and insect repellent. It also doesn't smell at all, so doesn't bother the bunnies.
 
I used dynamite got it from Bunny basics, you make it up with water and put in a spray bottle.

I sprayed it around in the shed also you can give a VERY light misting on your rear end of your rabbit, but only with extreme caution.

Also used it on my horse and worked really well for him.
 
Do people here routinely rearguard their rabbits? I lost a beloved bun to rearguard last year - a complete shock as I thought they had to be dirty to get flies. Now my rabbits are rearguarded all the time (yes, even over winter - my bun got flystrike after I thought the fly season was over), but I do wonder at putting this very noxious-smelling chemical on them. I am wondering if maybe I only need to put it on unhandle-able rabbits... any thoughts?
 
I think it's recommended for high risk rabbits e.g. one's that have long fur, get dirty bottoms, have a disability that makes cleaning more difficult etc. I guess being in an area with a high incidence of the flies would count too e.g. next a field of sheep or something.

Tam
 
I tend to you rearguard of any of my buns that get a mucky bum. I do need to order another batch in ready for the summer.

Elve, snow is going to come by the end of teh month, it may kill the ones off abit.
 
I don't worry about the cold weather not killig the bug and things so much this year, it has been hot enough up here that we have had flys all winter so i have still been dynomiting the hutches ect anyway!! Although my spring clean is on it's way in about 6 weeks!!! Every hutch gets scrubbed, repaired new roofed and painted!! I can't wait, that'll get rid of anything hiding in cracks and all the hutches are looking particuarly scruffy after this very very wet winter we have had!
 
Just curious, but I thought you only had the flystrike-type flies in the UK, and not the bot flies? Flystrike is maggots eating the flesh, often attracted to wounds or poopy butts. Bot flies lay eggs in vegetation and the eggs stick to fur. The egg hatches, larvae burrows into the rabbit's skin and makes a home with a little air hole and lives there until that stage of it's life cycle ends.

I've just never heard of bot fly problems in the UK?
 
What is dynamite?.....Just been on the Bunny Basics website and I can't see it. Having lost a bunny to flystrike I'm really scared about it now. This stuff sounds good...where can I get it?

Paula XX
 
naturestee said:
Just curious, but I thought you only had the flystrike-type flies in the UK, and not the bot flies? Flystrike is maggots eating the flesh, often attracted to wounds or poopy butts. Bot flies lay eggs in vegetation and the eggs stick to fur. The egg hatches, larvae burrows into the rabbit's skin and makes a home with a little air hole and lives there until that stage of it's life cycle ends.

I've just never heard of bot fly problems in the UK?

Oh that's my mistake then - I thought 'bot' was short for bottle - as in bluebottle, greenbottle and blackbottle flies :oops:

Anyway - after posting this thread I fed the rabbits and shone the torch all around the hutch eaves as I do every night, checking for nasties - And there was a massive black/blue/green bottle nesting out of the cold after the sunny day had woken it up! :x It was so cold it barely moved, so I got it before it got Maa :? It wasn't there in the day - just at night!
 
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