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squirrels with bot flies

Skillet

By Skillet,
in Small Game and Predator Hunting

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Skillet Rising Star

Skillet

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I've kind of backed off on hunting squirrels in september. The last couple years it seems like at least half of the ones I kill in the early season down around camp have bot flies. I didn't know what they were, but I kept finding big lumps under the skin on the squirrels. Some squirrels had like 5 of them. They were weird enough that I wouldn't eat the ones with it, so I never skinned one and found out what it was. I finally got frustrated a couple years ago & squeezed one of the lumps, so it popped, & a grub like an inch long oozed out of the skin! Talk about being grossed out. After looking it up & finding out what they were, I had a couple guys tell me it was still ok to eat the squirrel. No way I was doing that, so I've not been hunting them as much until later in the season. I don't want to kill them and not be able to use them. Even in the late season, some of them have tiny bald spots that look like maybe an old wound from a shotgun pellet, but it's actually a healed up spot where there was a bot fly. The eggs get laid under the skin, the grub hatches and grows under the skin sucking nutrients out of the squirrel, then it breaks through the skin and flies away. Usually the squirrel lives, unless it's a really bad infestation. I have a tough time eating a squirrel with even old marks from them, it's a mental image thing I guess. It's a bummer, because they're my favorite animal to hunt and eat. Anybody else notice these on squirrels you kill? Maybe it's just more common where I hunt. Naples (8N)

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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They are very common here in southern Steuben...The proper name of the larva is WARBLE..Down south they are called WOLVES...

 

They are kind of gross, but they come off with the skin and do not affect the meat..

 

I ignore them... Want to come over for a squirrel supper ?..<<grin>>....

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Lawdwaz Grand Master

Lawdwaz

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Tell y'all what I'm gonna do...

I'm hunting in the morning...If I get some squirrels I'll keep track of how many grubs they have in them and report back here..

 

Let's get a little wager going........I'll say 2.75 zits per squirrel.  

 

Who's in?

 

 

 

:) 

 

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wheelieman Newbie

wheelieman

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I ran into this a dozen years ago for the first time, I shot a nice squirrel and laid it down next to the stump i was sitting on, About an hour later i was spacing out just relaxing when i looked down there were these giant maggot looking things crawling out of the cooling carcass, Yup freaked me out lmao, Not gonna lie i didnt bring that squirrel home that day, Then i did a bunch of research and found what they are, So now i just let my neighbor eat them, 

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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Here's my report...I went to my favorite hickory grove this morning..

I shot my first squirrel at 6:55 AM...By 8:45 I had my limit of 6 grey squirrels.

Before cleaning them I did grub check...One squirrel had 4 grubs in him. Two others each had a scab where a grub had recently emerged..The other three were clean..

SO, if I count the scars, it averages out to one grub per squirrel..

BTW, by 9:15 I had them all skinned and disjointed..Once skinned, it was impossible to see where the grubs had been...

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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So what gun did you hunt with Pygmy?  More importantly, fixed 4x?

LOL !!..Actually, Moog, I DO have a fixed 4x on my squirrel rifle, but I was hunting with a scattergun today..

With the heavy foiliage and the way the squirrels bounce around WAY up high in the treetops this time of the year, it is difficult enough to get a decent shot with a shotgun, much less a rifle..I think only ONE of the squirrels I shot this morning offered a stationary shot that I MIGHT have made with a rifle.

I used my 1936 vintage Winchester Model 12 16 gauge with 1 oz. Remington game loads of #6 shot. It is full choke and it pops the squirrels out of the highest treetops with authority.

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