blow fly eggs

Submitted by Tamie on 9/19/04 at 9:56 PM. ( tamie@runningbuck.com ) 4.228.189.6

A couple of days ago, a customer brought in a pronghorn hide to be tanned with the hair on. I looked it over really good to make sure the hair wasn't slipping and it looked great. It wasn't until after the customer had left that I opened it up and noticed that their were tons of blow fly eggs located on several areas of the flesh side of the hide. I scaped as many off as I could and then froze it imediately. I have my doubts as to wether or not the freezing will kill the eggs. I send my tanning out, so my concern is after fleshing, salting and drying it, there may still be eggs I missed that will hatch and eat away at the hide before arriving to the tannery. Any advice on how to treat this hide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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No need to worry

This response submitted by George on 9/19/04 at 10:09 PM. ( georoof@aol.com ) 152.163.100.73

Freezing likely killed them,but even if it didn't, the fleshing and salting will finish the deal. Flies lay eggs on prospective food sources and the hide just happened to be handy. That has nothing to do with the hide spoiling or rotting, just the other way around. If the hide was fresh, you have few worries.


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