Bot Eggs

Bot eggs are laid by bot flies along the chest and the inside of the lower limbs of a horse, and they can be removed using a bot comb, a pair of scissor or a razor blade. Eliminate bot eggs from the horse's coat with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.

Hi! I'm Dr. Joanna Robson. I'm a doctor of veterinary medicine with Inspiritus Equine, Inc. I'd like to talk to you about the nuisance known as bot eggs. Now, bot flies typically come around the end of the summertime or early fall. In California, in the West Coast, we see them around October, November, generally those months. Little bot flies do something which can cause a problem for your horse. They will lay their eggs on the horse's hair coat, generally along the chest and especially on the insides of the lower limbs. You can identify these little bot eggs because they are generally cream-colored to yellow, very very sticky and about 1-2 millimeters in length. The trouble with them is, is that they don't generally brush off with the standard body brush. You have to purchase either what's called a bot comb or be very careful with using the edge of a scissors, or even a razor blade to actually scrape the eggs off of the horse's hair coat. The horses, when they lick their hair, will ingest some of these eggs and the bot larva will actually grow inside the horse's stomach. This is again why it's very very important to do appropriate de-worming, and a boticide at the appropriate times of the year if you're in an area that has bot flies and bot eggs.