Okay, I was having a hard time deciding what to write about today's ten hours of check station, but after reading the comments on yesterday's bot entry, I know what to write.

Welcome to Wildlife Diseases 301, Chapter 13, Ectoparasites.

Today's reading: Family Oestridae, the nose bots.

Not to be confused with Family Cuterebridae, the skin bots, which are the large flies that lay their eggs on or in skin, having the larvae (large black maggots, often called warbles) develop under the skin of the host. A rather disgusting Family, certainly worse than the Oestridae.

My personal first experience with Cuterebridae warbles was with a couple chipmunks killed on a small mammal trap line I had set out (yeah, I know... maybe I killed Chip and Dale). Noticed a couple huge lumps (in relation to the chipmunks) on their sides.

I mean, it was like having lumps the size of chihuahuas under your skin.

Lumps that wriggled.

And then had the montrous, alien-looking black things come ripping and crawling out through the striped fur. Like a miniature version of Aliens.

But that was years ago. Today's topic is the throat bots we encountered yesterday, a totally different group of critters from those that crawl under the skin.

The hunters who had harvested that deer came back through this evening and, as one would expect, the conversation went back to the squirming mass of yesterday. Contrary to my expectations, the fellow at the meat processor's claimed to have never seen such a thing before. Which I find surprising, since he probably cuts more deer throats than anybody in the county.

The hunters asked if we had seen any more botted deer, to which the answer was 'yes'. A doe this morning, similarly infested. And yeah, these were the first heavy infestations I had seen in over a quarter century, but I haven't actually had that much opportunity to slice open deer throats, you know?

So, back on topic. For Trinity and Brian: Do these things affect the meat? Well, probably not. They stay in the throat, and do not enter the rest of the body, much less the muscles. And if your meat processor adds these to your processed meat, I would suggest it is time to find another meat cutter, 'cause he'd have to be adding the esophagus and other non-muscle organs into your meat products in order to incorporate the bots.

For Brian: Where are the bot flies found? My handy dandy reference book on wildlife diseases states that deer throat bots are "widespread across the United States and Canada where white-tailed and mule deer and elk are found." Appears the northeastern U.S. of A. must have their share.

For Melissa: Where were the retropharyngeal lymph glands in relation to the mass of bots? Directly below and through, one on the left, one on the right.

And finally, for Lisa: No, I suspect the botfly you have to worry about laying eggs on horses legs is probably some sort of warble fly, where the larvae would grow under the skin. Sounds like you know more about what the eggs look like than I do.

Tomorrow's lecture: Family Hippoboscidae, the keds (not to be confused with kids' tennis shoes).