![]() The preferred location for deposition is the neck and shoulder region of the rabbit. The larvae occur singly, living in cysts under the skin, which open to the outside. The abdomen is usually shining black or blue, but may be fuzzy or reddish. It is a large fly, about 20 mm or more in length. This is the fly commonly known as the botfly, causing a condition in rabbits (and other animals) known as “warbles.” The genus is strictly North American in its’ distribution and contains a number of species that parasitize rodents and lagomorphs. ![]() One family of flies known to attack rabbits is the Cuterebridae, which includes the genus Cuterebra. What kind(s) are we dealing with in the rabbit barn? There are blood-sucking maggots, flies that lay eggs under the skin of human and animal babies, flies that attack healthy tissue, flies that are attracted to necrotic tissue and excrement. The problem was clearly a lot more complicated than I ever suspected. Each species has a different mode of attack, a different life style, and a different range of occurrence. Of these, several different families of flies (and a number of species in each) are known to attack animals. ![]() The scientific name for fly strike is myiasis, “the condition resulting from the invasion of tissues or organs of man or animals by dipterous larvae.” Diptera (the insect Order of two-winged flies) is comprised of over 120,000 species. The following is a brief synopsis of what I have gleaned from that literature and from my own experiences. Merritt kindly loaned us quite a few studies on fly strike in foxes, voles and humans. Rich Merritt) an expert on (among other things) various biting and flesh eating flies, did I get on the right trail. Not until my husband, a Professor at the University of Michigan, mentioned to me that he was having lunch with a colleague from Michigan State University (Dr. I tried looking in the rabbit literature on fly strike, but found little useful information. I learned how to treat the rabbits, but I never had a clear answer to my many questions: “Why me?” “What fly is causing this problem and how do I keep it from happening?” “Are my fly strike problems the same as friends on the West Coast are experiencing?” But since then, I have had more encounters with fly strike, and have become a reluctant expert in this area. ![]() At this point he started kicking, and maggots were flying through the air, climbing up the bathroom walls and all over the tub and sink and me. Next I dipped his hind end in bleach… the same result. What could I kill the maggots with? First I dipped him in alcohol… the maggots didn’t like it, but it didn’t kill them. His crotch area was a wiggling mass of maggots!!!!!! I screamed and raced to the bathroom with him. I had finished the top side and gently flipped him over to start work on the underside, when I gasped in horror. I was in the middle of shearing an English Angora buck. I had been raising English Angoras for six years in central Illinois, and had never encountered the problem, until I moved to southern Michigan. There is nothing so horrifying, so repugnant, so disgusting, as a breeder’s first encounter with fly strike. ![]()
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