WARNING! Not for the squirmish: Swedish insect shoots larvae into victims' eyes

Swedish insect shoots larvae into victims' eyes

“It was uncomfortable and hurt a bit,” said Malin Hallgren who had 30 eggs ejected into her eye by the insect.
Bot fly larvae is a parasite that mainly feeds on the mucus of elks and deer. Up until recently the insect was only found in elks in the north of Sweden but it has now been detected as far south as Jönköping, in the county of Småland, south of Stockholm.
A full grown insect measures around two centimeeters and looks a bit like a hairy fly or a bumble bee. After mating the female looks for an appropriate host for her offspring. This is usually elks or deer, but sometimes, she will mistake human eyes for elk nostrils.


The pregnant female shoots her already hatched larvae at the host animal’s nostrils. The larvae travel into the nose where they feed on mucus.


From there the larvae wriggle down to the throat where they reach their third stage of development.
When the larvae reach about 4 centimers their movements tickle the nose of the animal, which sneezes them out together with mucus and blood on to the ground where they then continue to the next stage in their development.