Child Solders of the insect kingdom

Child Soldiers of the Insect Kingdom

Biology has taught us how Snakes are said to be more dangerous when they are young, because of the lack of control they have on their venom. In the kingdom of mammals most creatures aren’t a threat until they grow to be adults. However in the kingdom of insects there is no taking candy away from these babies.

The Bot Fly

Wasps, bees, and hornets come with stingers. Mosquitoes carry and transmit malaria pathogens. The Bot Fly are the stout bodied hairy flies that resemble bumble bees. Unlike its peers that are well equipped with stingers, have different type of ammunition.

The Bot fly’s weapon is its young. The larvae stage of this insect’s life uses its parasitic abilities to feed off a host (which is usually a mammal in most cases human beings). (www.ambergriscaye.com)

The bot fly’s egg is either deposited by the fly itself or by mosquito. Once deposited the larvae grows in the host’s body until it is fairly large. It is only the female bot fly that deposits the egg near the opening of the host, and the larvae itself burrows into your skin.

In human beings once the larvae has entered the skin and you are the host of the parasite it will feed on the tissue and the fluids until it develops into a pupa and burrows out of your skin.

(www.ncbi.gov) Myiasis is the term applied to the infestation of live humans and vertebrae animals with the larvae (maggots) In humans affections may occur on the skin as wounds. Myiasis is traumatic and boil-like, the lesion is termed furuncula. The infestation of bot flies has been an epidemic in west Africa for the last 135 years.

(www.ncbi.gov) reported a case of a woman from South East Nigeria whose name they kept confidential.  She came complaining of a swelling on her right breast. Because the Bot Fly (in this case scenario “Tumbu fly”) is an endemic in the area. Upon the day of diagnosis they extracted 14 matured larvae from her right breast. The larvae had fed on her breast tissue as well as being well nourished by the fluids in the mammary glands.

Prevention

(www.ncbi.gov)  also details how the patient often never ironed her clothes after washing them. Bot flies easily lay their eggs on moist un-ironed material.

As a safety precaution one must always iron their clothes after they have been on the clothesline to dry.

(www.ncbi.gov)  also states how medicines like ampicillin / cloxacillin pills in conjunction with a tetanus toxoid injection can suffiently combat the ailment

Key Words

Bot Fly

Myiasis

Larvae

Ampicillin

Cloxacillin