Raise your hand if you have ever had a botfly under your skin! The botfly is the larva of the fly known as Dermathobia hominis, and both animals and humans can host this parasite. The fly lays about 15 eggs on the skin, and the body heat causes the eggs to hatch. Soon after, the larva appears. For the larva to develop it is necessary to enter the skin through an existing injury even as small as a mosquito bite. It will settle in the orifice and develop for eight weeks. People who have had a botfly say that it is painful and very annoying because it moves and feeds from the muscle and the subcutaneous tissue. It also has hooks that point to the opposite direction from the hole where it goes out to breathe, making the extraction more difficult. For about eight weeks, the larva feeds from the host and can grow up to two cm. At that point it moves out, falling to the dirt and burying itself to reappear after a few weeks as a fly. The best way to remove the larva of botfly is manually and with the help of tweezers. There are some home methods, which I haven’t tested for effectiveness, such as covering the orifice with a piece of meat or Vaseline, forcing the larva to go out to breathe. If the larva is not completely extracted, there is a risk of infection and localized abscess. Be aware of the botfly! By Dr. Fernando Riera S.
