Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1891-04-01
About scraw Norms.


 The season when the screw worm, ol
 We might say the fly that produces that
 worm, is near at hand. A few words si
 this time concerning this stock pest
 may not he out of place. The fly car
 be easily detected. When full grown il
 is about two-fiiths of an inch long, with
 wing expanse of nearly an inch. It i'
 of brilliant metallic green color, with s yellow head and black legs. The wings are transparent, except near the base
 where they are slightly clouded; and
 there are three black longitudinal
 stripes on the thorax. The entire body
 is furnished with rather long, spinous
 hairs. These flies are readily attracted
 by the odor of the decaying animal or
 vegetable matter, npon which they feed
 voracionsly. It's history is easily told.
 1t passes through four stages. First it
 k an egg and the female usually lays Q
 large number of them in mass. and
 each egg is about one-twentieth of sn
 inch long, light yellow or white in color
 and nearly cylindrical, but with lon-
 gitudinal ridge on the upper sidet
 Each Hy is capable of depositing about one hundred eggs. and are usually de-
 posted where ticks have hurst on the brisket, flask. or just behind the udder of cows, and even in the vulve of fresh cows. Young calves are almost inva- riably affected in the naval and often in the mouth, causing the teeth to fall out. The eggs are also laid in wounds on horses mules and hogs, though sheep are comparatively fr1s from at tack, unless iBlured by dogs or some other cause. But the insect is not con- fined to living animals for its develop ment, for it is as freely developed from eggs laid upon decsyipg animal and vegetable matter The second stage Is he msggot. Under favorable condi- ions the eggs hatch within an hour liter being deposited. When first ,atched they may be overlooked, for mall. II they are matched on the sur ace, or q drop of blood from ruptured .ick, for instance, they attempt to per- or>te the skin, and if matched in wounds they at once become buried ou, oi sight. They seem to attach theni- ,elves by their head, which arc provided with two strong, sharp pointed black hooks, and burrow their way under the 'kin, completely devouring the soft iesh. The worms grow steadily in size md the hole in the flesh becomes larger every day. They produce considerable irritation, for the part is always swollen md constantly bleeding. The maggot becomes full grown in week or ten lays during hot weather. It is then about three fifihs of an inch long and Ehitish. At each articulation there is ! row oi stiff black bristles which give t a general resemblance to & screw, hence its common name. The maggot when full grown, falls from the wound, makes its way slightly beneath the sur ace of the ground, and changes to the pups state, which Is nearly half an inch ong and of brownish color, and about ten days later the adult fly ,merges from these brown cases. Thus yon have the history of the screw iy. Now for the remedy: Where the screw worms are present, remedies must ,e applied with view of killing them without injury to tine wounded part O he animal. The substances usually are cresylic acid, calomel, and carbolie acid. Enough ,f any of these is applied 10 kill the and then in case the sub stance used is an irritant it is washed away by water. All treatment should De supplemented by daubing the mar. gins of the wound with pine tar to ward ,f the fly. Vast numbers of cases can ,e prevented by keeping cattle free rom the common cattle tick.
 You, cattle men, cut this out for fu- | ure reference. You will find it well worth preserving.-Ex.