Thread: Fly blown venison

Hi all im after some advice
Just got back from a successful hunting trip, shot 2 deer yesterday morning, had the back legs hanging under a tree for 24 hours in a meat bag, now checking the meat at home ive unfortunately found fly eggs on on some of the meat and a few small maggot crawling on the meat, have cleaned all off that i can see and trimmed off any average looking meat,am i best to freeze the meat as soon as possible just incase i have missed anything or leave the meat to rest for a few days in the fridge and check often ? Or if anyone knows a better way ? Cheers

Wipe / rinse with vinegar if it isn't too severe, then butcher, age, package and freeze. Should be fine for consumption.

Throw vinegar into a cheap spray bottle and give it a go all over. The suckers hate the stuff.

In the fridge will be fine, go buy a couple cheap cotton pillow cases at the Warehouse and put your meat in them on the hill, stops the flys getting to them.

Yep will give vinegar a go, isnt too bad at all but not what im wanna be seeing at the end of a trip

Learn something every day, vinegar, cheers fellas

My bnb has plenty of oldish pillowslips.As I cut the back legs off.Theres a pillow slip in my left pocket,li lift the cut leg up and place the pillow slip over leg.Keeps all dirt off meat from the start.I hang the legs in the truck,3hr drive home or stay another night.Have a can of fly sprey handi just in case one of those big blowies gets in truck as I open a door.My Aircon keeps the legs cool every now in then.
Vinegar,il keep that in mind.

Many years ago.
Shot a goat and was left hanging in shade at home. It was summer. I went to work.
Wife spotted a few eggs, perhaps 1 or 2 maggots.

Hosed it off, in the fridge, we all ate it. Lol. Was yummy too.

The vinegar sounds good.

ha ha the old hunters used to say " turn the lamp of boys bit of rice in the stew " - when we were culling any hint of a crawly and the dog got a bonus feed - hated the buggers - pillow slip great advice - carry a little portable meat safe on 2-3 day trips really good - flimsy zippers though - and wash well they are not overly robust

Freezer is your friend but lay packages in thin layer not all in a heap. Many years ago Dad came home on hot summer's day having skinned line of possums.the blowies had beaten him to them so mechanical rice all through his string pikau full of skins. So he chucked whole shebang in freezer thinking that would kill them all and he could thaw them out in week or two and process skins.WRONG. the fur insulated them and when bag was removed..a shell of skins n fur surrounded a moving ball of horrid fat maggots. They don't like vinegar you say??? Good to know,they hate janola bleach,perfect when they on concrete floor or in drain.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Freezer is your friend but lay packages in thin layer not all in a heap. Many years ago Dad came home on hot summer's day having skinned line of possums.the blowies had beaten him to them so mechanical rice all through his string pikau full of skins. So he chucked whole shebang in freezer thinking that would kill them all and he could thaw them out in week or two and process skins.WRONG. the fur insulated them and when bag was removed..a shell of skins n fur surrounded a moving ball of horrid fat maggots. They don't like vinegar you say??? Good to know,they hate janola bleach,perfect when they on concrete floor or in drain.

The little wrigglies cease and desist pretty much immediately too if you shoot boiling water over them. Doing that can be VERY satisfying .....

no any sign of flys and for me out - cant stand the thought of serving up wild shot meat and someone finds a crawly even cooked - just could not live that down - no need - a little preparation in summer - the pillow cases - little portable meat safe - does not take much to protect ones hard earned venison -and flys are fast - one morning in Pirongia culling goats - shot a nice pig 120 lb young boar about 8.30 in morning - hung him up and went back to retrieve my pork about 11am and bloody fly blown -

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

no any sign of flys and for me out - cant stand the thought of serving up wild shot meat and someone finds a crawly even cooked - just could not live that down - no need - a little preparation in summer - the pillow cases - little portable meat safe - does not take much to protect ones hard earned venison -and flys are fast - one morning in Pirongia culling goats - shot a nice pig 120 lb young boar about 8.30 in morning - hung him up and went back to retrieve my pork about 11am and bloody fly blown -

Try to think of it as "wriggling rice" if that helps

True, my oldies always said this.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Freezer is your friend but lay packages in thin layer not all in a heap. Many years ago Dad came home on hot summer's day having skinned line of possums.the blowies had beaten him to them so mechanical rice all through his string pikau full of skins. So he chucked whole shebang in freezer thinking that would kill them all and he could thaw them out in week or two and process skins.WRONG. the fur insulated them and when bag was removed..a shell of skins n fur surrounded a moving ball of horrid fat maggots. They don't like vinegar you say??? Good to know,they hate janola bleach,perfect when they on concrete floor or in drain.

About mid spring Mrs longshot commandeered some slightly over ripe rabbit carcasses for the garden, several nights later on a cold evening I went out with the thermal to check for little pesties in the garden. Three times there was a strong heat signature in the garden but nothing to be seen in the torch light. It turned out these were the places where the ‘slow release fertiliser’ had been applied. The rabbits had been buried in relatively shallow holes and the maggots and maybe the bacteria were numerous and active enough at this point to warm up a fairly large patch of soil.
One lot actually cooked a new planting.

Between having a blanket of possum fur and a bunch of friends to keep each other warm, it’s hardly surprising they survived in the freezer.


As an aside, the vinegar thing is new to me too.