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HORSE FLY
Key Features
- 1 inch or longer
- Brown or black in color
- Large, often colorful or iridescent eyes
- Piercing, sucking mouth parts
Breeding Sites
- Animal carcasses
- Garbage
- Animal manure
- Decaying vegetables
- Decaying grass clippings and leaves
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HHorn Fly
Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus), Muscidae, DIPTERA
DESCRIPTION
Adult -- The horn fly is half the size of the common
house fly and is more slender, and the horn fly has
piercing-sucking mouthparts. This fly has a brownish-gray to
black body with a slight yellowish cast, a set of parallel
stripes just behind the head, brownish-red antennae and two
wings with a smoky tinge. The body is 3.5 to 4 mm long.
Egg -- Tan, yellow or white at first,
the egg darkens to reddish-brown before hatching. It is
oval-elongate in outline, flat or concave on one side, convex on
the other and 1.2 mm long.
Larva -- The newly hatched maggot,
about 1.5 mm long, develops through three instars to reach a
mature length of 6.5 to 7.5 mm. Slender and white, it narrows to
a point at the head.
Pupa -- Enclosed within the shrunken
skin of the last larval instar, the pupa is 3.3 mm by 1.4 mm.
Barrel-shaped and white at first, the outer covering (puparium)
soon turns a dark reddish-brown.
BIOLOGY
Distribution -- Believed to have been introduced from
France prior to 1887, the horn fly now is found throughout
the continental United States and Canada.
Hosts -- Although this blood-sucking
fly is primarily a nuisance to cattle, other animals such as
sheep, goats, horses, mules and dogs are also bothered.
Damage -- Congregating on those areas
of the body where they are not likely to be disturbed (base of
horns, neck, throat, belly, thighs, back, etc.), horn flies suck
blood from livestock through their needle-like mouthparts. Such
feeding causes weight loss, reduced milk production, and reduced
vitality. Furthermore, animals become so annoyed that they may
injure themselves while attempting to dislodge the flies.
Although infestations of 4,000 to 10,000 flies per animal are
common in some parts of the country, horn flies rarely exceed
500 per animal in North Carolina.
Life History -- Favored by warm, moist
weather, horn flies emerge in spring and seek out host animals.
Although they locate hosts most successfully during the day,
they usually disperse at night, sometimes traveling as far as 5
miles. Soon after initial feeding, females periodically leave
the host animal and deposit 1 to 14 eggs in fresh cow manure.
Both male and female horn flies apparently feed on the manure
from time to time. Eggs hatch 16 to 24 hours later.
Over a 4- to 5-day period, the larvae feed in
moist cattle dung and develop through three instars. They then
either burrow about 4 cm (1.5 inches) into the soil or remain in
the manure and pupate. During spring and summer months, a new
brood of flies emerges 5 to 7 days later and repeats the cycle.
As winter approaches, newly formed pupae overwinter giving rise
to a new generation of flies the following spring. Although most
prevalent in spring and summer, horn flies continue to produce a
new generation approximately every 2 weeks well into autumn.
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Face Fly
Peggy K. Powell, Ph.D., Board Certified
Entomologist
February, 1995
Although the face fly, Musca autumnalis,
is nonbiting, it is nonetheless a troublesome pest of cattle.
The face fly's feeding activities, normally on secretions of the
animal's eye and nose, often result in both annoyance to the
animal and transmission of disease.
Identification
Face flies are 3/8-inch long, slightly larger
than the house fly. A female face fly is slightly darker than a
female house fly, but is otherwise almost identical. The male
face fly's abdomen is orange with a black band down the center.
The puparium or pupal case of the face fly is unusual in that it
is white. An easy field identification characteristic is that
face flies congregate in clusters of 20 to 100 on the faces of
cattle.
Biology, Habits, and Life Cycle
Only the female face fly is a pest of
livestock. Males spend their time perched on vegetation,
awaiting mates. The males feed on plant nectar and on the liquid
secretions of dung. Females feed on protein contained in eye
secretions, nasal secretions, and saliva, not on blood. They
feed only during the daytime, resting on fence posts or
vegetation at night.
While the fly is feeding, the roughness of
its sponging mouthparts irritates the cow's eye and increases
tear production. Face fly feeding can transmit bacteria to the
eye, increasing the likelihood of bovine pinkeye and Thelazia
eyeworms.
The lifecycle for the face fly is about
14-21 days long.
In addition to feeding on facial secretions,
face flies are sometimes facultative blood feeders. This means
that although they don't bite cattle to obtain blood, they will
feed on blood that oozes from scratches and other mechanical
wounds.
The female face fly lays her eggs only in
recently deposited (less than 15 minutes old) manure from
grass-fed cattle. They do not lay eggs in manure piles around
barns or in the trampled manure associated with feedlots.
Face fly larvae, or maggots, develop under
the crust of the manure pat. When they reach maturity, they move
into the soil next to the manure to complete their
transformation to the pupal stage. The flies emerge as adults
about a week later. Development from egg to adult requires from
two to three weeks.
The face fly is active from early spring
through late autumn. Although face flies prefer bright sunlight
and do not enter buildings during the summer, in the fall adult
face flies often seek out hibernation places inside structures.
Economic Threshold
The treatment threshold for face flies is
five flies per animal. A population of 12 to 14 flies per animal
will result in a decrease in grazing by about one hour per day.
Twenty to 200 flies per animal is considered a heavy population.
Heavy face fly populations can cause cattle to stop feeding and
move into a shady location to escape the flies, resulting in
reduced animal production. Dairy cattle will cluster together to
reduce face fly attack, thereby increasing heat stress and
reducing milk production.
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Deer fly
Scientific name: Chrysops sp.
(Diptera: Tabanidae)
Facts: Deer flies are biting flies
with a pattern in the wing. They are larger than a house fly but
smaller than most horse flies. They can bite human, pets, and
livestock. Larvae are large maggots usually in slow moving water
where they feed on organic matter. Adult flies can be found
around lakes and ponds. However, they are also a pest of
livestock in rangeland where the adults like to roost in cedar
trees. In Texas, they are sometimes called "cedar flies".
Photo credit: Bastiaan (Bart) Drees
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Black Flies
William F. Lyon
| Common Name |
Scientific Name |
BBlack Fly, Buffalo or Turkey Gnat
|
Simulium vittatum Zetterstedt
Simulium venustum Say
Simulium jenningsi
Prosimulium sp |
|
|
Adult |
Larva (top)
Pupa bottom |
Certain species of adult black fly females
are fierce biters, whereas others are strictly a nuisance by
their presence around one's nostrils, ears, arms, hands, and
other exposed skin areas. These flies can discourage people from
remaining in or visiting certain recreational areas for fishing,
camping, hiking, golf, etc. when the black fly season occurs.
Children are especially susceptible and may be severely bitten
while adults in the same area are scarcely aware of the flies.
Most complaints in Ohio occur in early spring (April to June) in
hilly areas with swiftly, flowing streams. Bites may appear
where clothing fits snugly against the body, leaving a ring of
bites just above or below the belt line.
After the black fly finishes feeding,
bleeding may continue for some time. At first, the bite site
appears as a small, red, central spot surrounded by a slightly
reddened, swollen area. Next, the area becomes increasingly
itchy, swollen and irritating, sometimes for several days. Some
black flies readily attack people, whereas others prefer
domestic animals or birds, often feeding during the daylight
hours and sometimes into the night. Flies may become so abundant
as to be drawn into the air passages of livestock, occasionally
resulting in death. It is believed that allergic reactions to
bites may be caused by histaminic substances in the fly's
saliva. These flies transmit a disease of filarial worms,
onchocerciasis, which causes blindness in people in Mexico,
Central America and Africa in addition to protozoan parasites,
leucocytozoonosis to turkeys and wild birds. They may be
potential transmitters of encephalitis. It is suspected that the
expansion of black fly populations in Ohio is likened to
improvement in stream and river water quality in recent years.
As with many aquatic insects, black flies are very sensitive to
water pollution.
Identification
Most species of adult black flies are about
1/8-inch long (2 to 5mm), black gray or even yellow colored,
broad clear winged without hairs or scales with heavy veins near
the anterior wing margin, have short 11 segmented antennae,
large round eyes (no simple eyes) and the thorax (middle body
region) is strongly convex, giving a humpbacked, gnat-like
appearance.
Small creamy-white eggs (rather triangular)
about 1/32-inch long (0.1 to 0.4mm) are deposited on the water
surface or attached in compact masses to stones and vegetation
in shallow fast-running water (riffles) in streams and rivers.
Larvae, black to light brown colored, cylindrical, about
1/4-inch or more long (10 to 15mm), are quite active and
abundant, sometimes appearing as moss. Pupa are boat or
basket-shaped cocoons up to 1/8-inch long (2 to 5mm) in the
water.
Life Cycle and Habits
There are four species present in both Ohio
and Pennsylvania according to Dr. Peter H. Adler, Department of
Entomology, 114 Long Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, South
Carolina 29631 - Telephone 803-656-3111 (formerly conducted
black fly research in Pennsylvania).
- Simulium vittatum Zetterstedt -
This species is strictly a nuisance attacking horses and
cattle, but not humans. It does fly around people's faces.
Breeding occurs in rich productive streams such as polluted
(sewage) areas, at beaver dams, etc. It is dark gray to
velvety black. (Widely distributed in North America.)
- Simulium venustum Say - This
species is a nasty biter feared by fishermen and campers.
The season extends from May to September with greatest
numbers in June and July. They are usually less troublesome
in late summer. It is recognized by its white-marked tibiae
(leg parts). (Widely distributed, especially in New England
and Canada.)
- Simulium jenningsi - This species
breeds in huge rivers (one mile or so wide). In
Pennsylvania, New England and other states, there is
currently a multimillion dollar program applying a
biological larvicide known as Bacillus thuringiensis
Berliner subspecies israelensis (B.t.i.) into streams
and rivers to control larvae before adult emergence.
- Prosimulium sp. - This species
occurs in early spring (April to May). It is a nuisance by
both swarming and biting. Larvae occur in small woodland
streams. It is the first black fly species to appear each
year.
Black flies often occur in enormous numbers
in the spring and early summer months, especially in the
northern latitudes. Bites can be extremely painful, and their
mouthparts are somewhat similar to those of a horse fly
(bladelike and piercing) in the female. Mouth parts are
rudimentary in the male. On people, they crawl into sleeves,
under neckbands, around boot tops and other vulnerable places,
especially favoring the head just beneath the rim of a hat.
Bites can cause swelling and numb soreness for many days. There
are records of both domestic animals and people being killed in
a few hours through venomous bites and blood loss. Death can
result from suffocation as a result of plugged nasal or
bronchial tubes and allergic reactions.
Black Flies usually bite during the day in
outdoor shaded or partially-shaded areas. They do not bite
indoors or late at night. Some fly 7 to 10 miles from the
breeding sites, or are blown by wind even further to feed on
warm-blooded animals and people. Flies usually bite for about
three weeks before they die. Dark blue cloth attracts more flies
than white cloth.
Females deposit from 150 to 500 small, shiny,
creamy-white eggs on submerged objects in the stream such as on
water plants, rocks, twigs, leaves, etc. or simply scatter the
eggs over the water surface. Eggs darken then hatch in four to
five days at water temperatures of 70 deg F. Eggs deposited in
the autumn do not hatch until the following spring when the
water warms.
Young larvae attach themselves to submerged
objects, molting six times as they grow. They are elongate with
the hind part of their bodies swollen. A head fan sweeps food
material into the mouth. They retain their position in the water
by means of sucker-like discs and tiny hooks at the tip of the
abdomen. Also, they may spin a fine thread which aids in
anchoring them. Winter may be passed as larva. Pupation occurs
in a cocoon, open at one end. Adults emerge in two to three days
when the water is warm. They are capable of immediate flight and
mating. The entire life history spans about four to six weeks,
depending on species, water temperature, available food, etc.
There may be four generations per year.
Black flies are attracted to mammals by the
carbon dioxide and moisture in exhaled breath, dark colors,
convection currents, perspiration, perfumes, toiletries, etc.
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