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. 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. 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. 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. 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. By the time the woman came back for a follow-up appointment a week later, the lesion was “completely resolved,” researchers said. The human botfly larva (Dermatobia hominis) was able to breathe through the hole in the center. 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. [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. 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. 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. (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 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.
– 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.)