Warning: Don’t watch this at work, unless you want everyone to think you’re a freak.
Meet the bot fly of South America.
These little guys lay their eggs on other parasites like mosquitos. When a mosquito bites a mammal, like a human, the eggs hatch and the human bot fly larvae burrows underneath its skin until its fully grown, according to Harvard entomologist Piotr Naskręcki’s blog.
But there’s good news. Most of the time, the parasite is harmless. It's just really, really gross.
Terence Bowker/Terence Bowker
Naskręcki was infected by the bot fly in Belize.
Instead of getting rid of the parasite, he decided to let them grow in his skin so he could videotape the whole experience (for science, of course).
"They are quite pretty – It was an interesting experience and I am glad that I managed to bring these insects to maturity. But rest assured that the next time I am in Belize my bottle of DEET will never leave my pocket," he wrote on his blog.
Piotr Naskrecki / Via youtube.com
