HABRONEMA SEASON IS HERE AGAIN.......!!!

Poor little Sha'ba came here with a horrible infestation of habromena on his face & sheath 6 years ago. We got the face cleared up the first 2 years by daily efforts & fly masks. The fly mask keeps flies from reinfestating (not sure that's a word, but you get the idea).

Unfortunately there isn't anything to protect the sheath from flies long term. I have been checking him daily & was quite pleased to make it thru the spring without any sores on his sheath. But a couple of days ago, I noticed a couple of sores. Sure enough, a couple of them obviously wintered over. A few years ago I read someplace that they can incubate 6-24 months, which is the reason they are thought of as being chronic. It's not that they are chronic, they survive the winter, become active & draw flies, which bring in a new supply of larvae. There were a few teeny tiny ones on the surface that were brought in with the visiting flies & a swipe of invermectin got rid of them. I wormed him that night, supposeably internal worming kills external habronema. Can't say I've seen much difference, but I'm willing to do it, just in case.

I tried to take pictures this morning before I cleaned the area & put more invermectin on it. Although he's a good little guy & puts up with all my "doctoring", it's rather difficult to hold the subject matter & take pictures too. John said he will help tomorrow.

I know one of them is dead, I pulled the head off with tweezers. But the other one is still buried too deep to get ahold of. Pardon my rambling, but it makes my day, when I know they are dead, dead DEAD........!!!!!!!!! What a horrible incidious pest......................!!!!!

Cisco is my other chronic habronema guy, & so far this year he is doing good.