PETER'S BOTFLY, OH MY!

Peter’s botfly finally made its way out of his lower back after a long and awfully uncomfortable five weeks. What is a botfly you might ask? Here is what happens:
1. Mosquito stings you or you rub up against something with botfly host egg and it makes it’s way into your body
2. Botfly larva lives and grows parasitically off of body for any amount of time – usually comes to full maturation at 6-8 weeks
3. If conditions are right and it fully develops, larva drops from host and finishes life cycle in the soil, soon becoming a fly.

Lucky for us, only one botfly species attacks humans, the Dermatobia hominis. Also, there are only a couple of places in Belize you can get a botfly – it is likely Peter got his in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary while we were on Forest Ecology. Check out the before and after pictures.