Source: Breech
There is an insect that looks very much like a fly, but it is far from a fly. It is the oxfly, when you see the oxfly sucking the blood of the cow, you must shoot it to death in time, sometimes the oxfly will attack humans, it will be very painful when it bites, and it will swell up a large bag, which is a very annoying insect.
What is a cattle fly?
Cow fly is the common name of the fly, also known as cattle mosquitoes, cattle flies, blind ants, in the northeast forest area is also known as "blind touch" or "blind fly". Isn't it a little dizzy to see such a large list of aliases of the bullfly? Do cattle flies belong to flies or ants? In fact, the oxfly belongs to the diptera family. Just by listening to these aliases of the oxfly, the oxfly looks like a fly. But it is slightly larger, like a mosquito, and likes to tease, and the sound of flying is very similar to that of a wasp.
The length of the body of the oxfly is generally two to three centimeters, there are two large compound eyes, the eyes are relatively close, the facial hair is relatively short, and there is a very thick suction mouthpiece. The main difference from the insectivorous fly is that the bullfly is relatively fat, has no hair on the face, no thorns on the legs, and no single eye between the compound eyes.
Female cattle fly (Image source network)
Habits of life
Adults generally prefer to be active during the day and inhabit the water's edge. Male insects like to suck the sap and nectar of plants, and female insects suck blood, mainly harassing large animals such as cows, horses, donkeys, mules, etc.
Cows waving their tails to catch cattle flies (Image source network)
Bovine fly blood sucks up to 200 mg at a time,
If left unchecked, a cow fly can lose 200 milliliters of blood to a livestock in a summer, which is a huge hazard to the animal husbandry industry. In addition to making livestock weak and thin, it can also transmit various diseases, including anthrax, encephalitis, trypanosomiasis, side worm disease, sleep disorder, Turalens fever and so on.
Bacillus anthracis (Image source network)
When the oxfly bites, the skin is very painful and bleeds. Erythematous papules and wheals are then produced, which are itchy and painful. If you are bitten, do not scratch, apply some cool anti-itching and anti-inflammatory ointment, if it is serious, please seek medical attention.
The breeding period of cattle flies is generally from June to July, and after mating, females generally lay their eggs on the leaves of plants near the water, and a female can lay 4,500 eggs.
The larvae generally hatch in about 5 days, live on plant stems at the water's edge or in moist soil, and feed on a variety of larvae and small mollusks. If hatched in June, the larvae can feather into adults after about 2 months, and if they hatch at the end of July, the larvae overwinter in pupae and feather again at the end of May of the following year.
Larvae of the cattle fly (Image source network)
It can be seen that if you want to eliminate the oxfly, you mainly have to start from their habitat, there is a way to sprinkle mineral oil on the surface of the puddle, and the cattle fly can no longer fly when it comes into contact with mineral oil. However, this method is more environmentally polluting, so it is not commonly used.
The wound after the bite of the cattle fly is often lumpy and painful under the stimulation of the saliva of the fly, so the harassment of the livestock is extremely large, according to statistics, the cow can reduce the milk production by 11% to 15% because of the bite of the cattle fly, and the most headache is that the cattle fly will spread a variety of human and animal diseases, such as hare fever, anthrax, encephalitis and so on.
For such pests, humans also try their best to control the number of cattle flies, some people have sprayed efficient repellent on the body of cattle and horses, although the effect is good, but only short-term effect, want to use for a long time will waste a lot of manpower and material resources.
Fortunately, after human research found that some insects in nature are born as natural enemies of cattleflies, the use of biological control is more effective, there is a small insect called the red-eyed bee will parasitize in the eggs of the cattle fly, can reduce more than 50% of the larvae of the cattle fly, in addition to dragonflies, mantises, insectivorous flies, sparrows, magpies, swallows, etc. are also natural enemies of cattle flies, ladybirds and cryptoptera larvae specifically feed on the eggs of cattleflies. People can use these predators to eliminate flies.
Although cattle fly is very annoying, it is considered in the Chinese medicine community to be a traditional Chinese medicine.
Everyone must do a good job of safety protection measures in places where there are more cattle flies, be careful to avoid being bitten by cattle flies, and the bite must be dealt with in time.