Bug in Carrizo Cottontail

[bjake21]

Anybody have any idea of what this is? This was lodged in to the rabbit&#39;s front shoulder. Only the head(?) was sticking out. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-gag-green.gif

[bjake21]

another photo - you can see the hole in the front shoulder. There was no blood where it was pulled out.

[bjake21]

Here&#39;s the dog retrieving a different cottontail earlier in the day. Great day of hunting rabits and quail except the last cottontail we got.

[jephs422]

I&#39;m gonna say botfly.....

[Common Sense]

Yep, Botfly; if you do a search here you will find several threads with loads of info & pics. They say it is not harmful, but...

[spectr17]

Please no, I just ate supper. Not another nasal bot thread http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_images/2/icon8.gif

[Rancho Loco]

You wanna gross? Friend of mine&#39;s wife came home with one from Costa Rica.

Under.
Her.
Skin.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Heebee Jeebees, big time everytime I think about it.

[EMSFlyer]

Yup, botfly larvae. Here&#39;s a pic of my wife&#39;s "pet" she kept from a Jack we got some time ago.

http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/516/15684Bot_fly_larvae_2.jpg

The meat is SAFE to eat as long as you wash and cook it thoroughly--and you can even cut out the area when the larvae was "sitting". Remember, although they look disgusting, they only burrow under the skin and do not affect the meat quality.

[grtwythunter]

Yep, botfly larva. I rattled a couple out of a deer&#39;s nose while I was skinning it yesterday. Completely harmless.

Scott

[Rancho Loco]

Yikes - Parasites.

I can&#39;t deal... http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/afraid_face.gif

[hntnnut]

Ah-haaaa, so thats what those are, have come across them in the past usually in jacks.http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-gag-green.gif


Richard

[switch]

Botfly larvae. Years ago I shot a few jacks and tossed them in a cooler for the ride home. When I got home, I opened the cooler and found tiny tracks in blood on the bottom. I searched and found a big fat larvae waiting for another host...yuck.

[bjake21]

Well we discarded that rabbit at the time but it&#39;s nice to know that they are not harmful to the meat but that&#39;s gotta hurt! Thanks for the info.

[Marty]

It&#39;s almost dinner time. Should we have a botfly photo contest? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley_kewlpics.gif

[EMSFlyer]

Its not so much the larva itself that&#39;s vile, its the larva "crowning" from the warble, then seeing it squirm out that puts me off. Uuuugggghhh! Makes my skin crawl just remembering it! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-yikes.gif

[Marty]

Like that episode of the &#39;X-Files&#39; where the bug squirms under the skin of people??

Look! There it goes! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hair-raisin-blue.gif

[greenhorn]

Hey guys,

Had to chime in on this one. The first time I saw one of these little miscreants slurp on out of a cottontail, was up in Crowder Canyon, off Hiway 138. My hunting partner ,Grey Taylor, had popped a bunny in the wash and as we picked it up out came this THING!

I unloaded my Nylon 66 and sort of dropped the butt on the beast; the rifle literally bounced off the larva. Grey and I looked at each other and decided that the coyotes should enjoy this, but we would not.

To this day, we still call that part of the high desert "The Land of The Alien Rabbit".


Greenhorn - out.


"...there&#39;s the bell for fifth period."

[jackrabbit]

yep, first time uninformed encounter with these critters seems to be universal. When I was a teenager with friends hunting rabbits with friends, one of the guys who was skinning our first cottontails went into a panic when he saw the botsfly larvae. We all dumped our catches and hightailed it out of there -- what a waste! But those things REALLY DO LOOK DISGUSTING!

[5.9cummins]

Up here we dont have to deal with them but a guy i went to school with for entomology traveled to central america to do some work with a professor and he came back with one in his arm. He reared it out and walked around with a small glass vial taped to his arm when it was time for the fly to imerge. looking back on it i really should have taken a few photos. but in all reality botflys are nothing. pick up an entomology or invertibret zoology textbook and you can find alot of things that will really turn your stomach unless your an insect freak like me then you just think its cool. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hair-raisin-blue.gif