Weekend botfly blogging? : Aetiology

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Tara C. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology. Her research involves a number of pathogens at the animal-human nexus. Additionally, she is the founder of Iowa Citizens for Science and also writes for The Panda's Thumb and previously for WIRED SCIENCE's Correlations. Please note the views expressed on this site are Dr. Smith's alone and may not be representative of the groups mentioned above.

"...a veritable expert on tawdry cosmetic procedures gone horribly awry..."--Kevin Beck

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Weekend botfly blogging?

Category: General biology
Posted on: March 18, 2006 3:00 PM, by Tara C. Smith

I swear this really wasn't my intention, but I dunno--I'm a bit obsessed with these critters. I mentioned them here just last weekend. Yesterday, Josh over at Thoughts from Kansas blogged more about botflies, linking a video that had been passed around the Panda's Thumb email list (and that even grossed out "Parasite Rex" author Carl Zimmer). Josh also has a bit of background on the flies and, well, more nasty stories to boot.

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Comments

As horrifying as botflies are, they're really one of the best parasites to get. You get to disgust your friends, amaze your doctor, tell great stories about it later, and there are no lasting effects.

There's a sort of macho, cowboy ethic among tropical biologists; they treasure their disgusting parasite experiences the way that a war veteran treasures his medals. The really cool kids are the ones who let the critters grow until they come out on their own to pupate. I once worked for a guy who did that. He let the thing grow to maturity in his cheek.

(Yes, his cheek. If you think that's gross, you should have been there when he tried the "meat cure", where you seal a piece of meat over the bot and the larva supposedly crawls out into the meat. Suffice it to say that this guy was wandering around in tropical heat for three days with a piece of bacon taped to his face.)

Posted by: B. Spitzer | March 19, 2006 12:14 AM

Manual trackback. For some reason, trackbacks just don't work me on Moveable Type blogs.

What's That Mosquito Bite Growing On My Leg?

Posted by: Ocellated | March 22, 2006 2:53 PM

The squirrels in our backyard (central NC) sport large botfly warbles every summer. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to examine some up close, after I shot a squirrel that kept chewing on the siding of our house. The squirming larvae were clearly visible through the opening of the warbles. It was definitely the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

I thought about digging one out and preserving it, but they were so horrible, I just couldn't do it. Some things really are living nightmares.

Posted by: Nick | March 23, 2006 5:02 PM