A Bot Fly might sound like a cute little Japanese toy, but don’t be fooled. It’s one of the most disgusting, horrific bugs Mother Nature ever created. And when she created it she must have been having a very, very bad day.
Although there are literally dozens of varieties of this black-hearted bug, the one that targets and attacks humans—appropriately named the Human Bot Fly—is the focus of this article.
Indigenous to Central and South American rain forests, one or more of its creepy cousins can be found just about everywhere on Earth.
Death in the air
Although these flies do not have a tendency to swarm as some species do, they have been found in clusters. Female flies lay their eggs on horseflies or mosquitoes—or anything else that will sooner or later most likely land on an unsuspecting, defenseless human victim. The eggs piggy-back on the carrier until they find a suitable human host.
The Human Bot Fly eggs then rub off the carrier and stick to the skin of the victim. The minuscule eggs are quickly hatched by the person’s body heat and then the tiny, threadlike maggots—the larvae—burrow rapidly into and under the skin.
But perhaps “burrow” is not quite the right word. In reality the maggots chew their way through the skin.
Voracious vermin
Yet, the squirming maggots don’t stop there. If they just remained under the skin that would be bad enough, but the voracious vermin eat their way deeper. Some eat themselves through surging blood vessels, others into the major organs—even the brains of their hapless hosts.
More often than not the maggots find themselves eating their way through tasty muscle tissue. It’s not that the bugs prefer that, it’s simply that, statistically, the odds are higher that a carrier will land on an unsuspecting victim’s legs or arms.
Muscle tissue is quite preferable to lungs, kidneys, intestines, eyes…or brains.
The worst of it is, as they continue to merrily munch away through tender tissue, the engorged maggots get fatter and longer and hungrier still.
Chaos and terror
And that’s when the pain begins, followed by the chaos and terror. Victims that discover dozens of these things eating them up alive have been known to go mad. Unfortunately, some die.
Since where the eggs attach is the area where they will “dine,” those victims that discover too late that the chomping maggots have infested them and are eating their way mindlessly through major arterial walls, the pulsing muscle tissue of the heart, or deep inside the cortex of the brain, are dead men (and women) walking.
Those that find themselves in such an unenviable position, however, don’t walk for long.
Dozens of such cases are documented each year. There are probably many more than that though, primarily because many of the victims are from small towns or villages that do not have resident doctors, let alone any medical facility nearby. Those victims are given what meager herbs and native poultices are available and—if they are too far gone—left to perish writhing and screaming in the dirt.
After death has claimed them their bodies—along with the killer maggots—are buried deep within the bowels of the earth.
Rise of the idiot ‘entomologists’
Self-styled “entomologists” and collectors—people of the same ilk as those that smuggle alligators into New York City, boa constrictors and anaconda into the Florida Everglades, Amazonian piranha into Midwestern lakes and rivers, and Asian carp into Illinois waterways—have been importing lethal bugs into North America. Thankfully, authorities have been able to intercept these dangerous, undocumented ‘immigrants’ from the insect world.
But if even a few slip by, these alien invaders—aided and abetted by ignorant American citizen—can unleash a veritable “legion of the damned” across the countryside.
Pray that day never arrives for the Human Bot Fly is quite hardy; it can adapt to all types of climates. Only the flies’ range of flight and prevailing winds have kept them safely to the south of Mexico.
If these marauding monsters are ever brought into the United States by misguided human “friends” the infamous killer bee invasion will pale by comparison.
Links
[Warning: Do not Watch video if you are squeamish. Video contains expletices.]
Video: Live Human Bot Fly larvae extracted from man’s back.
Human Bot Fly Close-up #1
Human Bot Fly Close-up #2
Human Bot Fly larva photo
Live Human Bot Fly found inside human brain
