Wierd Fly

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

Tonight I saw a wierd fly land on my new heifer. I have never seen a fly like this in the last 4 years that I have been around livestock. It was a very large fly that landed right in the middle of my heifers back. I didnt know what it was, so I had another person come look at it. She didnt know either. It was a dark brown, large wings, kind of flat, had a very large thorax (back end?) with dark brown and lighter brown stripes. Id guess it was a darn near 2 inches long. It started biting her, and from what I could see, it looked like it was sucking blood from her. I slapped it off of her and she was bleeding pretty good from where she was bitten. Later on it landed on the other heifers back leg. I slapped it off of her and it landed at the top of my heifers tail. I slapped that off and it came after me. It flew off and we didnt see it again. It seemed that it always landed where the heifer couldnt reach it. When it was biting my heifer, it was obviously hurting her because of the way she was thrashing and trying to get it off.

Does anyone know anything about these things or a good source to try to find out what it was. I want to make sure it wasnt some rare bug that I may have to get some sort of medicine on the bite.

 

[msscamp]

Sounds to me like what we call a horse fly. They are almost big enough to ride and inflict a nasty bite. I have squashed a few in the process of feeding, and the bite bled fairly profusely for several seconds. And, yes, they do like to land where the critter cannot reach them.

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

I looked at horse flies already. Definately was not one of them. This picture is a horse fly.

The thorax was much larger, its wings were more rounded, and where it was sucking the blood, it looked more like a mosquito sucking blood.

 

[jerry27150]

same thing, they just get darker as they get bigger. why didn't you kill it

 

[msscamp]

The fly in the picture sounds like what you are describing. I would venture a guess that the pictured fly had not reached maturity. May also be a deer fly. They also get pretty darn good sized and hurt like hell when they bite.

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

I tryed to kill it, but was trying not to hit the heifers too hard (they are both kind of scared of people still) and I couldnt get it when it was coming after me. After that it flew off.

 

[Tod Dague]

The ones around here are kind of slow. A good thump and they are dead.

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

I just thought of what it looked like. It looked like a large bee in the shape of the body and wings, except it wasnt as round around the thorax. I dont believe it was a horse fly still. The horse fly has pincher like things they use to bite. This thing didnt. It had the needle type thing that mosquitos have, and I could see it was sucking the blood through there. I tryed to give it a good smack with my glove, it was pretty quick.

 

[Linda]

I'm thinking a deer fly. The largest ones I've seen were in Montana and were about 3/4" long. Here in Utah they're much smaller. I used to say the deer flies in Montana took core samples. Ouch!

 

[Beefy]

why dont you kill it and then post a picture for us to see. also be careful slapping cows. some slap back. others kick.

 

[msscamp]

TxCountryBoy (Hope I spelled your s/n correctly - if not, sorry) does the fly in this link look like the fly you saw?

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/livestock ... _fly01.htm

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

No, it looks nothing like that one.

 

[Beefy]

LOL. Gah, Msscamp, could you BE more wrong? heh

 

[msscamp]

I'm at a loss as to what it could be. All flies have a proboscis (the needle like thing that mosquitos suck blood with), as they have to vomit on their food so their enzymes (sp?) can digest it, then suck it back up to eat. I don't mean to be gross here (and apologize to any who this offends), but that is the nature of a fly. Deer and horse flies use it to suck blood from whatever they are biting.

 

[Beefy]

gross. luckily i dont eat sitting in front of the computer at 2 am.

 

[msscamp]

gross. luckily i dont eat sitting in front of the computer at 2 am.

:lol2: :lol2: What? You have never seen The Fly or The Fly II?

 

[Beefy]

no. i read Lord of the Flies though. i was mostly kidding. although i dont eat in front of the computer at 2am (usually) i have a pretty strong stomach. if i can take week old retained placenta smell or digging maggots out of an infected navel i can handle a little fly puke. nothing makes me throw up but bicardi. long story.

 

[msscamp]

:lol2: :lol2: I think I may know that story, actually. Wine, Boone's Hill Strawberry to be exact, does the same thing to me.

 

[Beefy]

i think every female who has ever had any alcoholic beverages has gotten drunk off their butt from Boone's Strawberry wine. I swear every girl i know has a BSW horror story.

 

[Beefy]

we digress! back to flies...