Botfly Attack!

[bigbendmarine]

Not something I see or capture on game camera everyday! Not sure about everyone else, but I find the bots in every buck I clean, primarily because I do euro mounts with them and find the bots when working to deflesh the skulls as much as possible. Know the bots don't typically kill healthy deer, but between suffering the nasal attack and subsequent larvae migrating and living in the very back of their nasal passages I'm fairly certain it makes life miserably aggravating until they drop out.

 

[Bill]

I don’t think we have those. And I’m glad ;)

 

[bigbendmarine]

I don’t think we have those. And I’m glad ;)

Bill, google search shows Missouriwhitetails site having a few discussions regarding them, one site I found showed them on a range map with May listed as an active verified month, and another site I found showed pretty much the entire US with the sole exception of Kansas having them. Even have them in more northern climates with reindeer, elk, moose, mule deer, etc...

If you've fleshed out a good many skulls and they're in your area I'd guess you'd have seen the larvae. If you don't flesh out skulls, be VERY easy not to know the deer have them -- hunted for decades before a local taxidermy friend showed me one on my deer as he was fleshing it out and told me how common they are. If you don't flesh them out, be very curious to know if any local taxidermy folks you run across have seen them in your neck of the woods. Then again, if you don't want to know, maybe best NOT to ask!

 

[Bill]

I’ll ask him next time I’m in.