That Botfly Story You’ve Heard From Me 10 Times Already

Hi,

My l6 year old daughter has been on San Blas Islands in Panama for 8 weeks doing mission work. She returned home yesterday and has three spots that look nasty. One is a red bump that can be moved under her arm. One on her chin and one on her ankle. All of these seem to be in different stages. But at first they looked dry and then turned pussy. I covered them with antibiotic ointment and a bandade. She says they are not itchy or sore now. But they look wierd in that there is a row of black points. I thought that they looked odd and have just found this site. They could very well be botfly larvae, how do I get rid of them.

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl - I\’m afraid I can\’t help much.  I\’m not a medic and can\’t help with a diagnosis.  What I can say is that with my own botfly spot there were no black points visible on the skin itself.  If they\’re a type of botfly then just try what I did with the vaseline.  Better may be to see a good medic and explain the situation fully and carefully - making sure they take you seriously. Good luck!  Dave

I am a botfly.

Mmmmm, I always thought you were a vegetarian!

Absolutely fascinating creatures we dont have them here in NZ but have viewed several videos on youtube etc. and currently looking for more but they seem hard to find at the moment. Good on yer mate!

[...] I’ve done a separate page about it here. No Comments yet. [...]

Holy cucomber!!!!!!
those things are sick. Can you imagen having those in you thats is so sick!
please keep more of these blogs commin because i am so amased it is just sick!!!

Hello all. I am actually a premed student at the University of Wyoming, and I find the lifecycle of some of these parasites fascinating. Thank you for sharing your stories, you can really learn a lot just by reading up. Keep up on the mountain climbing, as we say in Wyoming; “climb on!”

OK…that’s what my “inflammation” (according to a local doctor in Lima) on my ankle is all about… thanks for putting this information together. I have been travelling for four months in Peru. I returned from the jungle four weeks ago (still in Peru) - and something has been growing inside my ankle since then - waking me up at night with a stinging pain that goes away after about ten minutes - and also the same pain sometimes during the day. There is a red tiny open wound or hole that keeps on leaking fluid with blood. The sensation of something moving inside is then NOT my heartbeat felt inside an infection… So what to do now? - don’t panic I guess. Make some nice macro-pictures of me as a man giving birth to an insect? For those of you who have fulfilling the process of giving birth to the Bot Fly; will the pain get worse (I’m pregnant in my 4th or 5th week)?

Hmmmmph… BLACH!! cough cough cough… hmmmmmmpf.. BURL—ACH! HUURRRRRRRRBLACH!!!

omg…

BUUUULLLLLrrrrrrACH!!! >spitspitcoughspitspitspit

I was in Peru for a biology course just a few days ago, and I think I’ve got one of these little bastards in my head. I’m goin with the vasaline in a vitamin water cap technique. I’ll let y’all know how it goes. I feel a little stupid, sitting on the couch with a slimy cap taped to my head with a crooked hat smashed on top.

Thanks for the info on this site. Two days after coming home from Belize, I felt pinches and movement (itchiness). There was redness and swelling surrounding two bites. I went to the doctor about 1 1/2 week later. He perscribed antibiotics and told me he thought I had a reaction to an insect bite but not a botfly larvae. That was on Friday. Friday night I read several more websites on the subject and applied vaseline. On Sunday my husband and I pushed on the bites (2) on my back and produced a total of three larvae. Monday I called the doctor back and asked him if he had read the papers I had copied from the internet and left him. He said he had but didn’t think that was the case. Then I asked him if he wanted to see what I had pushed out. He was all excited and said to bring them on down. I was the buzz in the office. Although the samples were dried out the lab that doc sent them to confirmed that they were small but 100% botfly larvae. He gave me the credit for diagnosing them and when I told him I thought there was still one left he recommended the treatment that I had used. After two long attempts to use vaseline and wait, nothing. I even tried a polstice of egyptian balm and very strong garden variety oregano on the bite. Nothing in the morning. So later that day, I made the appointment to have a cut done. Five stitches later I’m not sure. He has sent my chunk of skin in to the lab for analysis. Did he get anything or did I go nuts thinking it was another bug? Geri in Grover Beach, Ca. Would I go back to Belize, yes! Only I would be using more deet. It was an incredible vacation.

[...] Being a b3tard… Posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 by DaveFiled under: Asides< Previous I have a thing about the b3ta.com site. It keeps me tickled in those quiet moments. The fact they mentioned my botfly incident in their newsletter meant this site’s traffic and ranking improved a fair bit for a while, and occassionally I post answers to the question of the week spot. A couple have made it to the ‘best of’, which is nice. [...]

Well… how interesting is this stuff. I came across this site after squeezing 2 giant **things** out of my small Rat Terrier. Yes…I quezily watched the video of the brave soul with the duct taped back ((eeeww)) Anyway .. very informative stuff. I am done freaking out and thinking my dog has some horrid affliction, now I know she is just producing some nice new SouthDakotian flies. Thanks to all for the info and the stomach turning moments :)

My daughter was in Belize treking in the jungle.She took a little friend home with her!!!Yes a botfly larvae.A swelling started to appear on her head 3 weeks after she came home.We took her to the infectious deceases clinic in Aberdeen where the doctors confirmed the news my daughter had fearing that she had a botfly!!!
They told us to put vaseline and a plaster on that night and that might suffocate it and force it out of its home in my daughters head!!!If that didn,t work they would have to operate and cut it out.

It was 17mm long and intact and still living .we still have in a minature vodka bottle.think the daughters quite proud proud of it!!!

Well my dog has given birth to a bot fly in New Mexico the vet called it a cuteariba ( or something simalar) I found this site with searching. I guess they are now moving north with the Killer Bees. Major gross out!!!!!

Back in April, an insect got inside my wife’s nose. The insect bite her. She blew her nose, but nothing came out.
In May, she felt something biting her on upper part of her throat and though it was a parasite (worm). She has visited the doctor due to headaches, sinuses pressure, fouled-odor, drainage and the feeling sensation of something moving inside her sinuses. She has been given amoxicillin and other medicines. A blood test was done to check for evidence of parasites, but it came out negative. A cat-scan and x-ray also came out negative; even the ENT specialist could not see anything abnormal with her respiratory system. On September 16, she had a white fouled-smelling substance draining from her nose. First it appeared as tiny white drops, landing on her upper nose. Later, she discharged one larger speck, over a ¼ inch long. A week later, she felt like tiny bugs spitting out through her nose. This was preceded by numerous tiny drops of clear liquid (water drops) falling uncontrollable through her nose. She could feel some of these bugs as they would made quick contact with upper part of lip and quickly disappearing. On a few occasions she was bitten on the upper lip, right and left side of her face and left side of her forehead. So far the doctor’s diagnose have been sinusitis, seasonal allergies, possible mental problem or even having an unclean home. Is it possible for an insect like a botfly or screwworm to nest inside the sinuses cavities?

Felix,

From what I’ve researched the botflys do like nasal cavities. Hopefully by now the problem is taken care of. I just got back from Peru and came back with two botflys in my head. Per my dermatologists suggestion, I currently have two pices of bacon attached to my head. I feel completely rediculous, and I can’t help but laugh at this insane predicament. The truly insane thing is that I only spent 3 days/2 nights in the Amazon. I mean what are the chances?! Anyway, if anyone has experience with bacon, or bacon vs. vaseline, vapo rub etc. please pass it on. I’m particularly interested in how long I have to keep the bacon attached to my scalp. One more thing, I am very squeamish about everything and normally get completely grossed out by the sight of spiders, roaches etc. - it’s amazing what the mind can deal with when there’s no where to escape.

I am going to a clinic in Rivas, Nicaragua in a couple of hours to have 2 botflies removed from my head. The stabbing pains are the worst and I am prepared to pay any amount of money to stop the pain!

The doctor says excision is the best way although I would be a lot happier with vaseline or something less bloody!

Hi everyone..
I have a couple of questions, can the botfly be nested next to the hole or beside it?
Do they live on the westcoast of the U.S? (Seattle, Portland,Los Angeles)
Im here visiting and got a major pain in my lowerback, right around the tailbone area.
(YES, right between the upper part of my buttcheeks)
I stood infront of a mirror to se what was going on and noticed an irritation..
Not knowing what to do i thought it was maybe a rash of some sort.
I left it there and the pain started to wake me up during the night(And I sleep as if in a coma)
Rubbed Voltaren Gel for the pain thinking the back was the pain area..
Checked againg 2 days later and i notice a small ?hole?, and a small amount of discharge following from time to time.
But now i have a bulge on my left cheek, not to far from the hole.
Any ideas?

Hi.
Good design, who make it?

I have heard of a botfly case in Nashville from a person who had never left the US. I think it’s very possible that someone could have been carrying it (like a lot of us who have posted here), maybe not known what it was and just lived with the pain until the larvae dropped to the ground and there you go - an adult botfly. Let’s hope this isn’t common - I’m scared for life, although on the bright side nobody can ever top my story. Daniel, I hope for your sake you’ve gotten it taken care of. I’d be very interested to here if it was a botfly - it sounds like it was.

Just returned from a two week trip to Belize with three botfly holes in my left leg…I was aware of the botfly potential before traveling and can’t believe I actually got them since I spent an inordinate amount of time hoping I wouldn’t. Picked these bites up in Cockscomb basin on day 3 of our trip so I guess the botfly is almost 3 weeks old now? We asked a local guide we had in San Ingnacio about botflies (before I knew I had them) and he said to try nail polish to suffocate them and then remove when dead. This seemed to work on one of the holes- my husband got about a 2inch long larvae with head and tail and the swelling is already way down…but seems like the booger ate through the polish on the other two. We’ve reapplied and are hoping they’ll die too, but I can feel him moving right now… Wondering how long to wait before removing nail polish to see if it is dead? Suggestions? And now after reading all the blog- I’m worried we will leave some behind of course– what does the subsequent infection look like? What are the risks? And then the possibility of more than one bug per hole is not fun to think about. Wish me luck!!

My husband and my daughter (12 yrs old at the time) both had bot fly larvae growing inside of them after a trip to Belize in 2000. Doctors were stumped when the sores weren’t healing. Through research we figured out they were bot fly larvae and confirmed it with the tour company. They advised to put petoleum jelly over and tape, wait about 30 min and have two sets of tweezers ready to pull the bot fly out. We did that. Ours had grown about six weeks and were rather large. (Looked like white grubs.) Personally I wouldn’t want to wait for them to crawl out on their own because I wouldn’t want them to spread and my husband and daughter said it hurt to have them inside, so the sooner they come out the better. The bigger they get the more it hurts from what I was told. I had to be the one pulling them out and it wasn’t fun but needed to be done.

How to get rid of the botfly? I have read of success using Vaseline - covering the breathing hole and waiting and watching - tweezers & hemostat in hand - for the botfly to come to the surface. I have also read of covering the hole with a piece of raw bacon. It seems as though the botfly will crawl up to the bacon in search of air, bite through the bacon, then you pull off the bacon while applying traction to the head and body of the botfly with a hemostat or tweezers. You are correct when you write of the pain involved in having one of these varmints growing under your skin. The pain for me was excruciating!

It has been 16 days since I had my botfly extracted from my head and while the site has healed, there is still a small amount of edema at the site. I did further research and have concluded only one botfly grows per breathing hole, so I’m fairly sure a little sibling wasn’t left behind.

Looks like a common thread of traveling to Belize and bringing one or more of these things home. Immigration would be upset if they knew how common this was given they don’t even allow fruits or veggies to be brought back to the States! I read somewhere that 1 in 500 tourists will come home with a botfly larvae under their skin. Do they even spray in Belize to kill the misquitoes that carry the eggs? This whole episode was just plain gross.

I was also lucky enough to have one of these suckers in me in late 2006, although mine was in my arm. I suspect I was bitten while in El Salvador, but it wasn’t until I was in the middle of the jungle at Angel Falls in Venezuela when it became obvious it was more than just a run of the mill mozzie bite. The pain of being a bugs buffet was quite bad, but the biggest scare for me was the fact I was in such a remote tropical area (and would be for another week) with what I thought was some sort of jungle, meat eating infection in my arm. I wish now I had taken a photo of the infection as it was then at that early stage, but the best way I could describe it was a blood volcano. I had a scab on my arm about 1cm high and maybe 1~1.5cm wide at the base which continued to ooze blood out the top of the scab for about 3 days straight. It was really quite gross.

When I got back to civilisation about a week later and was able to clean up the wound properly I was actually quite relieved to find a small head going in and out of my arm. It was obvious then that I had a parasite rather than a meat eating jungle infection that was going to result in amputation. It still took another week though for me to finally get the botfly out. After about 4 days of having an old Venezualan nurse (who was the only one who believed that there was something in there by the way) trying to digg the lavae out with a scalpal without any sort of anaesthetic I decided to get the thing out myself. I took a pair of tweezers and thanks to the big hole in my arm the nurse had kindly dug out, the next time the botfly reared its head I was able to grab it by the end and very slowly and gently ease it out. Good times.

I heard of British soldiers training in Belize who would heat up a coke bottle, except the neck, put the mouth of the hot bottle over the botfly hole, then chuck cold water onto the bottle. The cold water lessons the pressure in a hurry, thus sucking out the larvae, blood and pus.
May just be a gory warry story.

Many years ago, in the early 80’s, I was stationed at Howard AFB in Panama. On occasion I would head out into the more isolated areas of that part of the continent and twice had to remove bot fly larae from people. I can verify the coke bottle story having seen it done once, but apparently it isnt 100%. Kind of a hit and miss approach. What I found that worked was to liberaly smear vasilne over, into, and around the breathing hole. Then, take a pice of saran wrap and tape it over the site. I used duct tape, but any kind of tape that will stay in place will work. Leave the saran wrap in place for about 2 to 3 days. This will ensure that the larvae will suffocate and die. They are WAY easier to get out once they are dead. You can see through the saran wrap so you will know when to remove it. Using tweezers, GENTLY grip and remove the larvae. It will slide right out.
Once you have removed the bugger irrigate the hole with a saline solution (those people who wear contacts are lucky, they usually have some sterile saline for rinsing thier lenses). Dry the wound site, then pack the hole with triple antibiotic and add a soft breathable dressing.
I have done this twice as i said and it worked each time.
Good luck to any of you that get nailed by this nasty little thing, you have my sympathies.
Jay

Here is a rather gross botfly infection (VIEWER ADVISORY [Note from Dave Coveney - the link below has caused me to receive a few e-mails... so I'm warning you right now that the link is a photoshopped image and rather disturbing, but untrue and impossible. Dave]). It occurs to me that one might try Lidocaine ointment when could serve to both anesthetize or kill the larvae as well as smother it and allow for an intact removal. Should be in every first aid kit to the endemic areas. Also, on the subject of worms, be careful when lying on or walking on the beaches where dogs run loose. The worms in their feces remain in the sand and bore up into your skin, usually your feet/legs, abdomen or back and move area as a visible line called Cutaneous Larva Migrans. I have seen many a patient with this return from the Mexico, Jamaica, etc. Treatment is easily performed now with antibiotic worm pills once recognized. Cheers.

Note from David Coveney added: The link that Greg included below is of a photo that is a well known bit of photoshop work. It is, however, a rather disturbing image and you may wish not to click it. Whatever you do think, don’t worry - cases of multiple infestations are pretty rare.

http://picasaweb.google.com/alamarina/Botfly02/photo#5202511801956685650 [photoshopped image]

By David again - a link to Snopes on this: http://www.davesgonemental.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=editcomment&c=13189

Hi. Thanks for sharing your story.
FYI: Another method used to get these buggers out is to lay a slice of raw bacon on the wound. They apparently like this stuff and will exit the wound (much of their body) in order to partake. You can then pretty much roll them out by rolling out the bacon strip with the self-attached to it (or at least grabbing the fly and pulling/rolling it out as in your video.

Greetings from the middleeast!!!

I read your above article and was totally “STUNNED”. Amazing though very weird.Did you finally get the Botfly out….?

I could use this in my writeups :)

@hayley:
I don’t think there are human botflies in Africa. The human botfly is native central/south America. There are worse things than botflies in Africa, LOL.

Also, it’s relatively rare to get them. They don’t really harm you because they stay near the surface in your skin and they secrete antiseptic that keeps the wound infection-free.

If you’re in an area like South America the locals think nothing of these infections and can get them out without too much trouble.

I know you warned about the picture in the link, but I clicked the link from Greg MDobefore seeing your note about it being photoshop. Please remove it so no one else has nightmares!

Hello :

This is a fascinating thread. I never realized that Bot flies live here in the great white north. But I did a bit of research after I found one on my dog’s rib cage today! She had a large lump about 1/2 the size of a golf ball on her left rib cage. (this after a sailing cruise in the North Channel at the very top of Lake Huron). I did not think to much of it but today I had another look and notice a rather large hole in the centre of the lump. It was weeping a watery fluid mixed with blood. I dabbed it with a tissue to get a better look and to my surprise I noticed a small whitish thing come to the top of the hole and sink back down again. It would do this every 10-15 seconds or so. I immediately thought of the Bot Fly but erroneous thought it was a tropical parasite. In any case I did the Vaseline treatment and managed to coax it out far enough to get tweasers on it. With a slow and steady pull out came this large maggot! My 7 year old boy was fascinated as was I. Anyway, I have it in a jar of alcohol and I am taking it to the Vet tomorrow for a positive ID. Is there any other treatment, after the extraction other than keeping the wound clean until it heals? I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and put some antibacterial cream on it. The rest of the family are keeping a close eye out for strange reddish lumps on themselves … so far so good !

Peter

I recently returned from Belize 2 weeks ago and I also just removed my own Bot Fly. After 2 weeks of pain, oozing, and blood I figured it was something more then the average mosquito bite. US doctors have almost no experience with this and often prescribe antibiotics. I looked onine and found some stories, but not many since it’s thought to be very rare to contract this. I did try petroleum jelly and a bottle cap but what actually worked for me was a band-aid and neosporin. After 2 days of constant covering, the tiny spiracle stuck out and I was able to remove it with tweezers. I have named it Iggy and am keeping it as a souvenir. Good luck to future hosts…

I too picked up a botfly larva in Belize, although I didn’t realise it at the time. I travelled on to Cuba and when the bite wasn’t healing I sought medical advice and was referred to a clinic in Havana. The larva was removed and the wound thoroughly cleaned. I was also given a course of anitbiotics. I was advised by the specialist that the larvae should not be left until they emerge or attempts made to remove them yourself because of the risk of infection. The bite has now healed. Hope this helps.

Ok, so my husband and I got married in Mexico, then traveled to Costa Rica and Belie…We were on the road for a total of 30 days. We have been home for about 2 weeks now and he has this THING on his head that is not getting better with antibiotics (that he has been on for 10 days now) and has been periodically shooting pain through his head. It was oozing puss at first (2 weeks ago) and then it bled out watery blood on his pillow one night about 5 nights ago. He has 2 really hard lymph nodes on the side of his neck. We have been to the ER twice - then to the ear nose and throat doc, now have had 4 visits to the infectious disease specialist. All blood work is clear and no growth on the culture. Today, the ID said it might be a bot fly! GAG!!! I was gagging the whole way home as my husband was like, “cool, it’s my mini me!” We go tomorrow to the dermatologist and he’s gonna cut him open and we will see what is hiding inside. We had the same experience in the Belize jungle, my husband’s back and head was COVERED in mosquitoes and the jungle guide didn’t have one on him (lucky punk). I’ll video tape the madness - I can’t wait ;)

Wish I’d printed this lot off during my many visits to my GP clinic. I kept telling them I had something moving in my back. I kept telling them that I’d been in the Peruvian rainforest. I kept telling them that it was like a red hot needle pushing into my back (so painful I had to stop the car to recover). I kept asking them why the wound would not heal. I TOLD THEM IT WAS ALIVE!!! But 5 weeks and 2 strong courses of antibiotics later I was beside myself and went to A&E. A scan showed a foreign body. I assured them that it was animate but they said not, they said that it was not waving - how terribly droll. A doctor cut me open and found nothing. I suggested that whatever it was had retreated down into it’s bunker. They smiled condescendingly and sent me away for a week. 2 days ago and 5 weeks after returning from Peru, a wonderful lady surgeon opened me up again and removed what looked like a pea or seed head. By the time she had washed up the little bleeder was crawling across the table and we were both retching! It was MASEEEEV!!! Really fat, it had abviously been having a whale of a time in there! I had been very sick in the jungle and I’m not sure if this was related, but I am totally traumatised at this point and keep wondering if there are any more in there. If you think you have one print off the info for your GP, they know jock all about anything odd and never listen to what the patient has to say, I am proof of that. Makes for a great story though and the photos are so gross they fascinate everyone! Good luck to all you hosts.

Got back from a trip to Belize a week ago and am pretty covered with mosquito bites which are collectively 1-2 weeks old, and seem to be “itchier” than typical bites. They are not really swelling up or anything (yet?), but still have a potent itch. I have scratched most to the point of having scabby wounds on the top, which could be either concealing a circular air hole (or this scratch scab wound itself is the precurser to the air hole?). I do not have any localized pain, open or oozing wounds, or really enlarged bite sites beyond a basic bite…… Does this match anyone’s “early signs” of botfly or have I escaped with only a bunch of bad mosquito bites?

My name is Ben and I gave birth to a botfly larvae today. We spent 8 days in Costa Rica on our honeymoon in late September. I don’t recall any mosquito bites but one must have gotten to me.

I had an oozing lump on my head for over a month but I don’t care for doctors and it wasn’t infected so I left it alone. Earlier this week, my lovely wife insisted I go to a doctor and see what was wrong so I went. I was told I had a sebaceous cyst and I had to go to Plastic surgeon to have it removed. I couldn’t get an appointment right away so I did some research on cysts. By divine intervention, I guess, the first link I found had a reference to a botflies. With nothing better on which to waste my time, I clicked to see where this folly led. Our travel to Central America, the life cycle of the botfly and my symptoms indicated a strong possibility of a botfly. The first two doctors spent a grand total of 1 minute listening to my symptoms and travel history and about 4 seconds looking at the bump on my head. Not exaggerating.

I went to a high dollar plastic surgeon today. He politely listened to my travel history, symptoms and detailed description of botflies. Proceeded to look at the bump for a minute, actually looked at it. He said it was a cyst and injected it a steroid and lidocaine to shrink it for later removal. Being a funny guy, he said he was fresh out of small needles so he would have to use a big fat one. A few minutes later, his nurse stops by to look under the gauze and sees something poking out. She grabs some tweezers and starts pulling. I told her to pull gently so it would come out in one piece. I guess the lidocaine did it job and fully relaxed the little bastard. After a few “oh my god” “this is disgusting” “the Doc has to see this” I’m the proud father of a 2cm long Botfly larvae.

To summarize: Two-three weeks after return from Costa Rica, I get a itchy welt on my head. About a week after that, it starts weeping clear fluid. About two weeks after that, I noticed a wound site. It never gets infected and it never closes. No pain or anything yet but it isn’t going away. Sometimes the fluid is a little bloody red but never blood. The last few days, I had stabbing burning pain for maybe one minute once a day.

US doctors have no clue about this. The last doctor spent time listening to me but he didn’t believe it until he saw it.

I would like to point out that whoever said you cannot get bot flies in Africa is wrong.
my dad went (Gambia) about 5 months ago and noticed his feet turning black and numb then after hours and hours of poking around found 9 of them in his feet.
They had been chewing on the nerves!

I just returned from Roatan, off the coast of Honduras with crazy sand fly bites, and an unusual bite on my foot, right on the arch. I saw my Dr toady who is clueless, and prescribed a lice lotion 2x daily. I’m wondering if it may be a bot fly. It started as a itchy bite, with a black pinhole at center. a few days later, it showed two pin points and was itchy. This process has happened a few more time, each about 3 days apart. I now have a line of five little black pinpoints in a row about 1.5 inches long on my inner arch. Does this sound familiar? Any and all advise welcome and needed!!

Not trying to one-up what were obviously pretty trying stories but here goes.

Twelve in the head, one in the back following a month long Venezuela trip that was all backcountry stuff … thirteen in all. True story. The pain as they munched their way to glory in my head was truly special …. good times.

The usual story; doctor couldn’t figure it out, repeated visits, feelings of motion under the lumpy skin of my decidedly pineapple like head (they were all concentrated right side just back of the hairline), watery fluid etc. Visits to a dermatologist ensue, followed by overnight efforts at the vaseline treatment covered with a plastic bag (which didn’t work) and then sitting at the dermatologist next day with strips of the meatiest deli bacon I could find plastered to my head for a couple of hours. That must have done something because the doc then saw a breathing bubble as one of the little suckers took a gasp … and the fun began! the dermatologist poked a local anesthetic into the lump and then poked around with a scalpel before squeezing my head so hard I literally could feel the skull bending … and voila! a wiggling little worm was thrust in my vision covered with little scraps of tissue hanging from the hooks in its little body. It was about 4-5 weeks old at that point. the good doctor’s wife, also a dermatologist, came to watch the fun and held my hand as her husband continued with the massive brain squeezing for each and every one.

A few days later one last one was taken out of my back, but we were all old pros at this by then.

But the best part came when we later took the bacon and fed it to a friend. Naturally we only explained where it had been and what it had been used for afterwards. Ahhh … it was nearly worth it.

Anyway, great to have come across your site and realised how many other folks have had this problem. I still have three of the little suckers rolling around in alcohol at the bottom of a specimen jar somewhere. I should probably put them on the mantlepiece or something, but its not a story I really share very often.

I’ve since spent a lot of time in Venezuela in that area around Angel Falls but never got them again, so it could have been from bites in a more urban setting in those parts. Either way, if it happens again I’ll definitely try the vaseline once more. Sorry for the long post … been carrying this one around for a while.