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parasites on baby bluebirds

17 years ago

I peeked in on 5 baby bluebirds and I was horrified to see blood sucking worms or larvae attached to three of the babies. The worms were grey in color about the size of a piece of long grain rice but twice as thick. They were attached to each bird in the same place, just to the left just under the bottom beak. I pulled each one off and noticed they were attached by a round sucker almost like a tapeworm. Does anyone know what they are? and how do I prevet a reinfestation. I think a flying insect layed eggs on the babies.

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Comments (5)

dzyg
17 years ago
Sounds like blowfly larva, they normally feed at night and go down into the nest during the day. If you have greater than 10 per baby Blue in the nest it is best to do a nest change. How old are your blue babies? Usually Blues do just fine with the blowfly but when you have a smaller clutch sometimes there are fatalities. I had 3 baby blues one year and about 60+ blowfly larva in the nest, I lost two of the babies but was able to save the remaining one by doing a nest change. Here is a link to some info on them, scroll down to about the middle of the page to find the blowfly info...

Donna

Here is a link that might be useful: Blowflies
dzyg
17 years ago
Oh, I wanted to add you can do a nest cleaning too by using a hamburger flipper to lift the nest slightly so you can sweep out the bottom of the box as the larva are usually down there during the day. This all depends on how old your baby blues are too (no peeking after day 13) and if you have a side or front opening box.

Donna
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janie_may
17 years ago
Excellent advice from Donna!

I will add one thing..... even if the babies are older than 13 days, excessive amounts of blowfly are cause for concern and would be, IMHO, a reason to clean out the box and replace the nest even if nestlings are older than 13 days.
myblueheaven
Original Author
17 years ago
i will make a nest change tomorrow. The babies are maybe five days old, their eyes have not opened yet. I live in California and was not aware of bowflys here.
janie_may
17 years ago
Oh my, I had no idea they were that young! The sooner you can make that change, the better. I'd do it now. Since you have a problem this early on you might have to do a second nest change in a week or so.

Did you check out the "Blowfly" link that Donna provided? Very helpful. If possible, have a helper with you when you make the change so that you can do it quickly. You can use a bucket (soft paper towel, etc.) in bottom and put the babies in that while your cleaning out the box and adding a new nest.

Good luck and keep us posted!

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