Bull horsefly: drives cows to psychosis (10 photos)

Its low hum heralds a bloody harvest. In one go, it will suck as much blood out of you as 100 mosquitoes. Even clothes won't stop its bites. Meet the bullfly, one of the world's largest biting monsters!





Know your enemy by sight!

In the picture, the insect is not much different from other flies, but believe me, in life you can't confuse it with anyone. Its thick, powerful body grows up to 2.5 cm in length. It doesn't seem like much on paper. In fact, the bovine horsefly is one of the largest representatives of diptera.



Hello, how much is chewing gum?

Shaking the air with a low hum, the evil one with endless hunger in its eyes looks for a victim. The bovine horsefly was called not so much because of its size, but because of its gastronomic preferences. The favorite target of the bloodsucker fly is cattle. It is not so easy to pierce the skin of a cow. The thickness of their skin is up to 0.5 cm! Therefore, instead of a proboscis, like mosquitoes, bloodthirsty insects have acquired a whole arsenal of piercing and cutting tools.





Your skin is so thin and delicate. I like it!

If a mosquito bite is a light prick, then a horsefly bite is a bloody chainsaw massacre. The upper and lower jaws of the fly have turned into miniature cleavers. The horsefly does not pierce the skin, it shreds it. And it does this several times to check where the blood flows the most. Even clothes do not protect against such a weapon - the fly's mouth apparatus pierces almost any equipment!



The only thing the horsefly can't penetrate is special clothing. But you wouldn't walk around the forest in the middle of summer wearing that, would you?

Where the blood is gushing, the insect injects saliva with an anticoagulant - this way the wound will stay open longer. And then it starts its bloody meal. In one bite, the horsefly drinks up to 0.3 milliliters of blood. About the same amount is taken from a finger for analysis in the lab - only the winged piranha does this without alcohol, gloves and warnings. For comparison, one mosquito drinks about 0.001 - 0.005 milliliters, i.e. one horsefly bite = almost 100 mosquito bites!



Horseflies are attracted to dark moving objects, so this is another reason why light clothing is preferable in the summer.

Considering that horseflies attack in a swarm, one cow "over the season" can lose up to 300 milliliters of blood. Multiply this by the huge number of bites and remaining sores - after a fly's feast, a bleeding wound does not heal for a long time and is very painful.



Don't listen to doctors! Bloodletting is very good for your health! I tell you!

So dipterous parasites reduce milk yields by 30% - almost a third! Just imagine how the poor animals suffer. Young animals have it even worse: their weight gain decreases by 40% - almost half! That's why sometimes on hot summer days herds of animals start to go crazy and run around the fields - this is how they try to throw off the blood-sucking parasites. But running from a horsefly is useless. A fly can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h. This is three times faster than the average person!



Now it's their bag.

The horseflies cause pain and suffering to everyone in the area for the sake of their own offspring. Like mosquitoes, only females are vampiric. They need the blood of mammals to lay eggs. The more blood the female sucks, the more eggs she can lay. Thus, a successful mother can make three clutches in a summer. In this case, she will drink up to 1.5 milliliters of blood and lay up to 3,000 eggs.



Only male horseflies can be held in your hands without harm to health. They feed on flower nectar and do not attack people.



It's good when your wife drinks someone else's blood!

Baby horseflies are also far from cute. After hatching from an egg, they look for ditches, puddles, lakes, ponds. For the next two years, they will be destroying living creatures under water. Horsefly larvae are predators. Gray-beige sausages lie on the bottom and hunt from an ambush. Their head works like a harpoon. As soon as a crustacean, fry or small bug approaches, the larva shoots out sickle-shaped mandibles and drags the victim to the bottom. The baby horsefly will eat its sides for two years. And then it will crawl to the surface, pupate and start pestering those around it already on the ground.



This sausage seems harmless, but in fact, horsefly larvae are capable of hunting prey the same size as themselves!

But how can you escape from the crazy winged maniac? First, wear light-colored clothes with long sleeves and be sure to use special insect sprays with a high concentration. Second, avoid picnics near a body of water, especially during the peak July heat. This is when horseflies are especially active. And if you do get out into nature, light a special mosquito coil - this will help scare away the bloodsuckers. If you have been bitten, quickly treat the wound with an antiseptic and, if necessary, take an antihistamine and painkiller. Horsefly bites are extremely allergenic - the site of the attack swells and distends in a matter of minutes!