>To complicate this rather exotic thread a little further,
>Fernando, it sounds a little as if you may have come across what
>the Africans know as tumbu fly (it has other names too, some rather
>less pleasant). This particular fly has a habit of laying eggs on
>washing drying in the sun. If the washing is not ironed
>thoroughly, when you put on the clothes, the eggs hatch and the
>larvae burrow into the nearest flesh...
I know exactly what you mean, we have them in Brazil too. I
was informed by Ed Read from L.A. that in English they are called
bottflies. Usually cattle and dogs get them, but people do too. And to
answer your questions, YES I have gotten this one too, and 2 of them!
Only this time I got one on each thigh (THANK GOD!!), and not in any
awkward part of the body. And by what I know, the fly can just lay the
egg on you, it doesn't have to be on your clothes. Apparently they like
laying them on hairy animals, so people usually get it on their heads. In
my case, being of mixed Mediterranean ancestry, I guess they liked my
hairy legs!!
>This is very painful and the best way to get it out is to cover
>the area with vaseline to cut off its air supply, it then comes out
>a little and can be grabbed with tweezers. I haven't suffered from
>this but I know at least two people who have and neither of them
>were at all happy with the situation:-0
As I was told by my doctor, it was simpler than your description,
that they would come out by themselves when cut from thei air supply, but
they turned out to be worse than having chiggers in my testicles!! This is
my favorite story about my trips in Brazil, but I won't go into all the
gross details. Basically, by the time I decided to go to a doctor to see
what was wrong, the larvae had been growing inside me for almost 3 months
and were a bit too big to come out of the small hole through which they
breathed. The doctor told me they were more or less 0.5cm long and I
decided to use another method, similar to the vaseline one. You lay a
piece of bacon on the skin, which cuts of the larva's air supply.
After a few hours with the bacon on my legs, feeling itchy because
of the larvae twitching around, trying to breath, I decided they must be
out already and when I removed the bacon I saw one had it's trunk out and
decided to pull it with my tweezers (the same ones I used to remove the
chiggers and for pollinating my Genlisea and Utricularia). It was quite
difficult and I only understood why when it finally did come out. It
wasthat typical yellowish-white larva color, about 2cm long, and +- .7cm
across at the bottom!! It also had many rows of short, bristly hairs
along its length (as each of these rows passed through the narrow hole I
was pulling the beast through, there was a small "POP") and 2 hooks at
the bottom. It was quite a fright alright, especially to think that I
still had one of those creatures in my other leg!
I kept up the bacon routine, changing it every few hours as it got
too old and smelly, not noticing that the other larva would not be able to
come out on it's own through that small hole through which it breathed. In
fact, I got quite 'atached' to it (or should I say it to me!) and learned
to observe its breathing cycle, as it stuck its tiny trunk out of the hole
and a few seconds later pulled it back in. About 2 days later I woke up,
went to my greenhouse, and while taking care of my plants decided to say
"good morning" to my guest. But when I poked at its trunk, it din't pull
it in as usual. After a few tries I noticed it was dead and was able to
pull it out with my fingers (easier than the first one). Then I realised
it hadn't fit through its hole and had simply suffocated inside. It was
then that I also realised that Drosera LOVE human blood, as I spread some
that was oozing out of the bottfly hole onto a leaf.
>Did you do a post mortem??? :-)
Well I still have them in a vial with alcohol and show them to
friends, saying they're my 'babies'. After all, aren't mammal babies also
parasites of their mothers???? Hope this doesn't turn anyone off from
going to Brazil someday!! Don't worry my friends in Brazil had the exact
reactions as you guys, these pests are not very common. You have to
remember that for 6 years I travelled to many forgotten corners of my
country. It was the least that could happen, and gladly thats ALL that I
ever got! My fellow biology classmates who went to the Amazon for a
few months on different projects all came back with some kind of disease
or parasite, and nothing too common! Believe it or not, my CP trips never
took me to the Amazon. Not only is it too far away from Sao Paulo, but
not many CPs to be seen there either.
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan