This is really nasty!

[dot-matrix]

Eeeeewwwwww!   Reminds me of the book Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery by Dr. Richard Selzer that I read in college.  Richard Selzer's memoir and experiences are the facts that the character of Hawkeye in M.A.S. H. is based on. ANYWAY, he wrote about some big bug that laid it's eggs in the deltoid of a young man when it bit him in the Amazon and how several months later as the young mans health began to deteriorate and the wound in the arm kept getting bigger and bigger...Dr Seltzer decided to probe the wound and image his surprise when something inside the arm probed back and then wrenched the forceps from his fingers.  Once he got a good hold on whatever it was a mighty struggle ensued with Dr Seltzer finally pulling the creature from the deltoid with a sickening plop. The egg had hatched incubated in the warm host and the critter had been feeding on this young mans blood and muscle tissue as it grew to maturity.  Apparently a common affliction among cattle in the South American Rainforest.   I almost threw up and then went right out and bought the strongest deep wood insect repellant I could find!

[MaineWriter]

Then there is the story of Dr. Robert A. Lopez, a veterinarian, who infected his own ears with mites (from a cat) to see what it would feel like. He even won an Ig Nobel prize for his efforts.

ENTOMOLOGY Robert A. Lopez of Westport, NY, valiant veterinarian and friend of all creatures great and small, for his series of experiments in obtaining ear mites from cats, inserting them into his own ear, and carefully observing and analyzing the results. [Dr. Lopez's report was published in "The Journal of the American Veterinary Society," vol. 203, no. 5, Sept. 1, 1993, pp. 606-607.]


L

[Jeff Wrangler]

Eeeeewwwwww!   Reminds me of the book Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery by Dr. Richard Selzer that I read in college.  Richard Selzer's memoir and experiences are the facts that the character of Hawkeye in M.A.S. H. is based on. ANYWAY, he wrote about some big bug that laid it's eggs in the deltoid of a young man when it bit him in the Amazon and how several months later as the young mans health began to deteriorate and the wound in the arm kept getting bigger and bigger...Dr Seltzer decided to probe the wound and image his surprise when something inside the arm probed back and then wrenched the forceps from his fingers.  Once he got a good hold on whatever it was a mighty struggle ensued with Dr Seltzer finally pulling the creature from the deltoid with a sickening plop. The egg had hatched incubated in the warm host and the critter had been feeding on this young mans blood and muscle tissue as it grew to maturity.  Apparently a common affliction among cattle in the South American Rainforest.   I almost threw up and then went right out and bought the strongest deep wood insect repellant I could find!

Arrrrgh!     

[southendmd]

That's like "Alien" in real life.  Yuk.

[delalluvia]

There are so many stories I heard about in entomology and invertebrate zoo class that will just chill you and make you grateful for hermetically sealed environments.

Dracunculus - Guinea worm:  Can bore its way through skin.  Up to three feet long.  Works its way through the human body at 1/2 inch per day.  This is very painful.  Finally it sticks its head out of the skin.  The Africans who have this parasite, then catch it and roll it around a stick or match.  Every day, they wind a little more.  Takes a month or so to get it out.

Google for 'guinea worm' for pics, if you dare.

[southendmd]

David, why did you start this?  I'm gonna have nightmares, and I'm gonna have to call you in the middle of the night.

[Jeff Wrangler]

There are so many stories I heard about in entomology and invertebrate zoo class that will just chill you and make you grateful for hermetically sealed environments.

Dracunculus - Guinea worm:  Can bore its way through skin.  Up to three feet long.  Works its way through the human body at 1/2 inch per day.  This is very painful.  Finally it sticks its head out of the skin.  The Africans who have this parasite, then catch it and roll it around a stick or match.  Every day, they wind a little more.  Takes a month or so to get it out.

Google for 'guinea worm' for pics, if you dare.

Funny you should mention that, Del. Once upon a time that wasn't limited to Africa. I remember reading an account in Benjamin Franklin's papers about removing one of those things from a woman in 18th-century Philadelphia.

[delalluvia]

Funny you should mention that, Del. Once upon a time that wasn't limited to Africa. I remember reading an account in Benjamin Franklin's papers about removing one of those things from a woman in 18th-century Philadelphia.

Considering how its spread and the possible presence of African slaves/indentured servants in the area...who knows how it got there or how and where she picked it up?

[injest]

my sister is a pediatric nurse; one little girl came in with an earache and they dug around in there and found a moth. It had crawled all the way up in there...

they flushed it out with a saline solution. It was still alive.

[David In Indy]

my sister is a pediatric nurse; one little girl came in with an earache and they dug around in there and found a moth. It had crawled all the way up in there...

they flushed it out with a saline solution. It was still alive.

God that is really awful!! I hate all the bugs flying around during the summer. I'm scared one of them will fly in my ear. A wasp flew in my sister's ear when she was 7 or 8 and it wouldn't come out. It continued to sting her until Dad pulled it out with a pair of tweezers.

AARRGGGHHH!!! 

Eww! And it's almost summertime too.