text: A 36-year-old woman suffering from an itchy skin lesion went to several Florida doctors two months after her honeymoon in Belize — and learned the wound was the sign of a living creature, which had burrowed into the skin on her groin, doctors say. 
   
   The woman had gone to Tampa General Hospital telling doctors that she thought the reddish lesion could have been an insect bite. She said she had already gone to a primary care doctor about the lesion. That earlier doctor had given the women a course of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole; but when the woman had finished her antibiotics, she said the lesion was still there, though the redness had improved, according to researchers who investigated the case. 
   
   Doctors puzzled over what it could be: Was it a cyst? An ingrown hair? It wasn’t until the woman went to Tampa’s Memorial Hospital for another opinion that she learned the truth, researchers wrote in a case report in the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports earlier this month. 
   
   Dr. Enrico Camporesi, a wound healing specialist who treated the woman and authored the report, said the skin around the lesion was hard, as if there were an egg or bean below, Live Science reports. Camporesi sought a surgeon’s expertise, because he worried it could be a lymph node problem — but the surgeon suggested the lesion was actually a living creature. 
   
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   The surgeon was correct: Doctors used local anesthesia and a 5 millimeter incision to remove the object beneath the woman’s skin, which was identified as a human botfly larva — essentially, a maggot — by a pathology lab. By the time the woman came back for a follow-up appointment a week later, the lesion was “completely resolved,” researchers said. 
   
   But what is a botfly? 
   
   A Tampa, Florida, hospital found a human botfly maggot under a woman’s skin months after she took a vacation in Belize, a case report in the Journal of Investigative Medicine said. The botfly is rare in the US but common in the tropics and easily treated. Mina Shenouda, MD, Et Al/Journal Investig Med High Case Rep./American Federation For Medical Research 
   
   It’s a bug that’s rare in the United States, but more commonly found in the tropics. The insect lays its eggs on animals like flies or mosquitoes. Those insects become hosts, carrying the human botfly eggs to human skin — the warmth of which hatches the eggs into larvae, researchers said. The larvae then burrow into the human skin, where they live for 27 to 128 days, causing itching in their hosts. 
   
   The authors wrote that sometimes “patients can feel the larvae moving when they shower or cover the wound.” 
   
   After its stay beneath the skin, the adult larva “drops to the ground where it pupates for between 27 and 78 days before maturing into an adult botfly. The adult form of the human botfly is rarely seen and ranges between 1 and 3 cm long,” researchers wrote. 
   
   A fully-grown human botfly looks somewhat like a bumblebee, and is large with thick hair, according to the University of Florida entomology department. 
   
   The side view of an adult human botfly, Lyle J. Buss University of Florida 
   
   Not all human botfly infestations require a surgeon to intervene, though: Communities in the tropics that are more acquainted with the pests have their own home remedies, the case report authors said. 
   
   “Local residents in Belize suffocate the larvae by applying ... petroleum jelly, bacon strips, nail polish, or plant extracts” over the lesion, researchers wrote. “Several hours after occlusion the larvae will emerge head-first seeking air, at which time, tweezers may be used to physically extract it or apply pressure around the cavity aiding in the larvae expulsion. Generally, larvae emerge 3 to 24 hours after application of the occluding agent.” 
   
   The authors said skin problems are one of the medical issues travelers are most likely to bring home with them after visiting developing countries — and a skin infestation of developing larvae is the fourth most common skin disease travelers report. ||||| The image on the left shows the lesion on the woman’s skin. The human botfly larva (Dermatobia hominis) was able to breathe through the hole in the center. The image on the right shows the larva after it was removed. The rows of black spines make it difficult to extract. 
   
   A Florida woman will probably never forget her honeymoon in Belize, but not for the usual reasons. Instead, her trip was memorable because of a small souvenir she unknowingly brought back with her: a baby fly growing in her skin. 
   
   But it wasn't until the 36-year-old woman had been back home for two months that she noticed something was amiss. 
   
   According to a recent report of her case, it was at this point that she saw what looked like a pimple on the left side of her groin. The skin lesion was itchy, but not painful. So, thinking she may have been bitten by an insect in Belize, the woman went to see her doctor, who suspected it was an infected spider bite and prescribed antibiotics. [27 Oddest Medical Cases] 
   
   But the antibiotics didn't help, according to the case report, published online Oct. 7 in the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Report. 
   
   That's when the woman decided to get a second opinion at a wound management clinic. 
   
   The lesion looked like a small bite, with a hole in the center and pus coming out of it, said lead case report author Dr. Enrico Camporesi, a specialist in wound healing at Memorial Hospital in Tampa, Florida, who treated the woman. 
   
   But there was something unusual about the bite, Camporesi told Live Science: The skin on the wound felt hard to the touch, like there was a bean or egg inside of it. Concerned this could be an infection in the woman's lymph node, Camporesi asked a surgeon to take a look. 
   
   The surgeon, however, suspected something completely different: That the hard bump may be some sort of small creature, under the woman's skin, Camporesi said. 
   
   The surgeon turned out to be right, and when doctors cut open the lesion, they found an insect with a tapered shape and rows of spines and hooks. Pathologists identified the insect as a human botfly larva. 
   
   Fully grown, the human botfly (Dermatobia hominis) resembles a large bumblebee, and is commonly found in Central and South America, according to the University of Florida entomology department. Botfly larvae (the wingless, immature forms of the insects) can burrow into human skin, essentially carving out a haven where they can grow and develop into adults. In medical terms, the infestation is known as "myiasis," according to the case report. [8 Awful Parasite Infections That Will Make Your Skin Crawl] 
   
   Botfly infestations are rarely seen in the U.S., but they are a common skin problem in Central America, Camporesi said. But the infestations aren't the result of a female botfly laying her eggs on human skin. Rather, the female fly deposits her mature eggs on the body of another insect, such as a mosquito or a fly. Then, when the mosquito or fly bites a person, the mature egg is injected into the person's skin, where it burrows down beneath the surface and, thanks to the skin's warmth, hatches into a larva, Camporesi said. 
   
   But when a larva burrows into the skin, it needs to leave a hole to breathe through. Indeed, the hole observed on the woman's lesion was just that — a source of air for the baby fly. (People in Belize may use home remedies, such as placing petroleum jelly, bacon strips, nail polish or plant extracts over the central opening to suffocate the larva, according to the case report. Several hours later, the larva will emerge head first seeking air, and the insect can be extracted with tweezers.) 
   
   Camporesi noted that if the larva had not been surgically removed, there's a chance it could have matured into an adult fly, creating a bigger hole in the skin as it grew larger. 
   
   Needless to say, the woman was very upset to learn she'd had a fly growing in her groin after her honeymoon. But within a week of its removal, her skin had completely healed. 
   
   Originally published on Live Science.
target: – A tiny creature grew inside a Florida woman for two months after her honeymoon in Belize—and no, she wasn't pregnant. Weeks after returning home, the 36-year-old noticed an itchy spot on the left side of her groin and assumed she'd been bitten by an insect, reports Live Science. Thinking it was an infected spider bite, her doctor fruitlessly prescribed antibiotics. Dr. Enrico Camporesi of Tampa's Memorial Hospital next took a look, noticing a hole in the center of the wound, which felt hard, as though something were inside. A surgeon suspected it was a living thing, and turned out to be right. Cutting open the lesion, doctors found a tapered human botfly larva with rows of spines and hooks meant to keep it buried in the woman's skin for up to 128 days, reports the Miami Herald. Commonly found in Central America, a human botfly first deposits her eggs on an insect, like a mosquito, which carries them to human or animal hosts. Injected in skin via bites, the egg hatches into larva that eventually drops from the skin and continues developing, eventually reaching the size of a large bumblebee, per the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports. Though the botfly didn't reach the pupa stage in this case, it wasn't necessary for its human host to go under the knife. Belizeans cover lesions—with petroleum jelly, nail polish, and even bacon strips, per the Herald—to suffocate larvae, which emerge for air and can be removed with tweezers. Still, the Florida patient was healed within a week. (Caterpillar larvae might prove useful.)