Squirrel parasites?
 

OK guys, this is a first for me. I killed 9 squirrels this weekend, and 2 of them had what looked like a black grub sticking out of it's back. The first one had one on him, and the second one had 2. I talked to people that have been hunting over 60 years, and they've never seen this before. One guy in our hunting party wanted to clean it, but after seeing what it looked like on the meat, he threw it away. This one looked like it was just surfacing, whereas the one I killed earlier, the parasite was protruding out about a half an inch. Another in our group also had one with this on a squirrel he killed. Anyone ever see this before? This is a bit disturbing.

Bot fly larvae. If it's not in the meat and you're not too grossed out you can probably eat em. We never did though


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This^. You will hear folks call them wolves but term is worbels. One the critter is dead they will come out so you may have some in your squirrel bag. Safe to eat but something about a hairless squirrel that doesn't do it for me

Well, my thinking is, if it's something that developes within the squirrel, even though it may not be visible yet...how will we know? Wouldn't that mean it's in the bloodstream? If it attaches on the outside...somehow that doesn't seem as bad.
BTW both times just handling the squirrels will sometimes cause them them fall off. Any idea if this is brought on by drought or excessive heat this summer?

Hearing of more and more to the east (kinder, iota etc area) have yet to kill one with it on the west side of the state. I hope they stay over there. Killed a couple this weekend that had bad spots like a touch of some kinda mange. They ate good.

I've killed tons with those. Some was in the meat some wasn't. I've always heard it's during the warm months they get em. When it gets cold they lose them.

frost will kill them but they squirrels will still be missing hair. Had a bunch of them in tensas "wolves" are also one of the reasons you hear about not eating rabbits til after a frost. The other is tularemia

Bot Fly larve, have shot a few rabbits that had them. Never knew what they were, so never ate the rabbits.
Since then, have read that you can still eat.
I did some research before, and in Latin America I believe, there is a Human Bot Fly, do a web search, looks like a heck of a pimple, that oozes puss out.

That's why I never hunt squirrels or rabbits until the first freeze.


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We killed allot of limits this weekend at camp and only had one or two squirrels with "wolves" but some years they can be bad. I check squirrels over quickly in woods.

BP's Fault!!

I think you did that squirrel a favor.