Associated Press – July 17, 2007:
Doctors thought the strange, bleeding bumps on Aaron Dallas’ head might be from gnat bites or shingles. Then the bumps started moving.
A doctor found five active bot fly larvae living beneath the skin atop Dallas’ head.
“I’d put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head,” Dallas told the (Glenwood Springs) Post Independent.
“I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy.”
Dallas said he likely received the larval infestation while on a trip to Belize this summer. Bot fly infections are not uncommon in parts of Central and South America.
Adult bot flies are hairy and look like bees, without bristles. The larvae, which are about one-third the size of a penny, were living in a pit 2- to 3- millimeters wide. They were removed Thursday.
At least he didn’t urinate into the Amazon:
“Once inside, the parasite inches its way up the urethra to the nearest blood-gorged membrane, extends its spines into the surrounding tissue, and starts feasting.”
[shudder]
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=797
I learned about bot flies from a summer school teacher 2 years ago. In certain villiages this kind of thing is very common, and they have special recognition for people who are the best at removing them. It’s highly interesting.
Ive never heard of that before – but now I’ll never leave my comfy 1st world country
BubbaRay,
That link is one of the most frightening things ever. As Lewis Black at a show last summer, “I can’t make this stuff up!”
My wife worked 12 years for a doctor in the Caribbean. Once a girl came back from a trip to Venezuela with one of these under her skin on her forehead. When they lanced it, a larvae wriggled out, but worse, a Rastafarian was complaing of severe headaches and when they investigated his dreadlocks, they found a nest of baby scorpions, and he was being stung repeatedly. NOT an urban legend.
I saw a similar instance on some emergency medical TV show (TLC ?) a while back. Kind of makes my skin crawl a little.
BubbaRay – That was utterly horrible!!!
Oooh.. Guess where did I had one?