The Gad-Fly.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8097, 23 March 1905, Page 7

The Gad-Fly.

According to Mr Charles Lewis, M.H.R., yet another insect pest has been added to the growing list of those which already •cause annoyance loss to fanners. AVriting to a Christchurch paper, Mr Lewis records the advent of the gad-fly to New

Zealand. Those who have seen the gad-fly in England will remember how its attacks •on cattle maddened the beasts. After being stung by the fly the cattle would career round the paddocks with tail on end, seeking places under the branches of trees in •order to rid themselves of the unwelcome attentions of the fly. Mr Lewis says that some of his cattle (his year acted similarly, showing that the gad-fly was present. The .fly, Mr "Lewis explains, jabs a long sting into the hides of the beasts it attacks, and -deposits an egg under the skin. The egg in due course turns into a maggot, which ■eats its way out of the beast, and then turns into the fly. The maggots may easily be felt under the skin, and can be destroyed. In the Old Country they are searched for and killed, not with any idea particularly of keeping the fly in check, but in order to make the animal more comfortable. It does not appear that the fly does any injury to the beast beyond causing it a good deal of

annoyance. The maggot, in eating its way out, bores holes in the hide, but these, one would think, would heal up, and the hide would then be none the worse. Of course, if the beast were killed when the maggot was present, or just after it had emerged, the hide would be affected detrimentally. Evidently the fly is here, and, like the botfly, it may spread rapidly. But these pests, though bad enough in all conscience, are rarely as black as they are painted. W hen the bot-fly first became plentiful, it was predicted that they would kill half the horses in the colony. But. it is rarely indeed that .horses die from bots. They are often said to so die when one can find no other reason. Nowadays one pays but little attention to them, and the horses do not mind them so much as they did. The gad-fly, however, as .a source of annoyance and pain to the .animal it attacks is much worse than the bot-fly.