#screwworm

[nightkit92]

WARNING : GORE, WORMS (eyestrain?)

Title: (: some bugs smile for flesh :)

Man, if only I knew how to draw hands. •-•

[wuhoh]

It feels like anytime I learn something new about flies it's always bad! Are there any redeeming qualities about these vile creatures? Screw botflies, fuck screwworms, and toadflies can especially go to hell!

Why is there no "Fun friend who is super cool" fly? "Hangs out with your pets in a non-parasitic way" fly? "Doesn't hide in your floors and suck your blood in your sleep" fly?

[great-and-small]

What’s your favorite turtle and also favorite parasite?

How could I ever choose?! I can’t pick absolute favorites but I can definitely choose some top contenders

Turtles:

- Alligator snapping turtle (I deeply love any type of snapper but these guys are just totally something else- once you work with one you’re hooked forever)

- Gopher tortoise (keystone species with talk show host level charisma)

- Bog Turtles (the cutest animal on earth??)

- Radiated tortoise (I love all the Madagascar tortoise species but these take my breath away)

- Eastern box turtle (if these dudes don’t fill you with childlike wonder I don’t get you)

- Diamondback terrapin (makes me feel how I assume old white guys feel when they see a fancy muscle car. Just a great looking kickass turtle here)

Parasites:

- Screwworms (parasitic larvae of a fly but terrifying and fascinating- these worms are the reason we have sterile insect technique)

- Toxoplasma gondii (best parasite to go down the rabbit hole researching; this protozoan is running the world)

- Parasitic wasps are morbidly fascinating to me so I’ll also say Jewel wasp (can perform brain surgery on the exact part of a cockroach’s brain that would allow it to escape)

- Any type of pentastomid (mysterious and cool, will never forget finding a dead snake filled to the brim with them)

- Guinea worm (interesting worm with cool history and life cycle- former US president Jimmy Carter once vowed to eradicate this parasite in his lifetime)

[deathmoth-blog]

Beautiful black witch moth

The erebid moth Ascalapha odorata, commonly known as the black witch, is a large bat-shaped, dark-colored nocturnal moth, normally ranging from the southern United States to Brazil. Ascalapha odorata is also migratory into Canada and most states of United States. It is the largest noctuoid in the continental United States. In the folklore of many Central American cultures, it is associated with death or misfortune.

Female moths can attain a wingspan of 24 cm. The dorsal surfaces of their wings are mottled brown with hints of iridescent purple and pink, and, in females, crossed by a white bar. The diagnostic marking is a small spot on each forewing shaped like a number nine or a comma. This spot is often green with orange highlights. Males are somewhat smaller, reaching 12 cm in width, darker in color and lacking the white bar crossing the wings. The larva is a large caterpillar up to 7 cm in length with intricate patterns of black and greenish-brown spots and stripes.

The black witch lives from the southern United States, Mexico and Central America to Brazil, and has apparently been introduced to Hawaii.[citation needed]

The black witch flies north during late spring and summer. One was caught during an owl banding project at the Whitefish Point lighthouse on the shoreline of Lake Superior in July 2020.[citation needed]

The black witch is considered a harbinger of death in Mexican and Caribbean folklore. In many cultures, one of these moths flying into the house is considered bad luck: e.g., in Mexico, when there is sickness in a house and this moth enters, it is believed the sick person will die, though a variation on this theme (in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas) is that death only occurs if the moth flies in and visits all four corners of one's house (in Mesoamerica, from the pre-Hispanic era until the present time, moths have been associated with death and the number four). In some parts of Mexico, people joke that if one flies over someone's head, the person will lose his hair.

In Jamaica, under the name duppy bat, the black witch is seen as the embodiment of a lost soul or a soul not at rest. In Jamaican English, the word duppy is associated with malevolent spirits returning to inflict harm upon the living and bat refers to anything other than a bird that flies. The word "duppy" (also: "duppie") is also used in other West Indian countries, generally meaning "ghost".

In Brazil it is called "mariposa-bruxa", "mariposa-negra", "bruxa-negra", and "bruxa", and it is also believed that when a moth of this type enters the house it can bring some "bad omen", signaling the death of a resident. In the Ecuadorian highlands they are called Tandacuchi and in Peru Taparacuy or Taparaco. These countries share the belief that if this moth, a messenger of death, appears in your home, someone will die very soon.

In Hawaii, black witch mythology, though associated with death, has a happier note in that if a loved one has just died, the moth is an embodiment of the person's soul returning to say goodbye. In the Bahamas, where they are locally known as money moths or money bats, the legend is that if they land on you, you will come into money, and similarly, in South Texas, if a black witch lands above your door and stays there for a while, you will supposedly win the lottery.

In Paraguay and Argentina, this insect is mostly known as "ura", and there is a popular belief that this moth urinates and leaves worms on the skin of people and animals. However, the insect that lays eggs in the skin and whose larvae become embedded in the flesh is the colmoyote or screwworm (Dermatobia hominis).

In Spanish, the black witch is known as "mariposa de la muerte". Other names for the moth include the papillion-devil, la sorcière noire, the mourning moth or the sorrow moth.[citation needed]

Black witch moth pupae were placed in the mouths of victims of serial killer 'Buffalo Bill' in the novel The Silence of the Lambs. In the movie adaptation, they were replaced by death's-head hawkmoth pupae.

[onenicebugperday]

Are there any bugs that are considered "parasites", like botfly larvae?

Not sure exactly what you mean as there are thousands and thousands of species of bugs that are parasites.

If you mean bugs that feed on humans in some way then yeah, sure, there are a lot of them. Most just drink our blood, though some live internally. Mosquitoes, bed bugs, lice, kissing bugs, fleas, various mites, guinea worms, tapeworms, screwworms, horse flies, and ticks just to name a few.

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

about the motorcycle helmets post. if you were a furry you’d 1000% be a protogen. you should look into it ^w^

I’m actually more of a screwworm type of guy.

[sporesgalaxy]

Tell me about blowfly appearances. How can they look? Any fun mutations?

tbh I dont know much about common blowfly mutations!!! Just about identifying the regular ones (native to my area)

Some blowflies, like house flies, are a pretty dull black or brown color, but there are lots of very shiny, pretty blowflies as well! Blue and green bottle flies for example!

Aside from bright body coloration, flies can be identified by details as small as the number of bristles in a certain area on their back, or the color of their "cheeks" (the under-eye area). One if my favorite identifiers is the bright orange spiracle (breathing hole) of Phormia regina ! It's hard to see with the naked eye, but it was a very easy way to differentiate it under a microscope!

One SPOOKY fun fact about identifying blowflies is THIS: one of these species of fly is normal and its larvae eats only dead tissue. The other, closely related species is parasitic, because it has larvae that eat LIVING tissue.

The only difference between them visually is the length of the middle stripe on their back!!! ^_^ They're called Primary and Secondary Screwworms

Don't be scared, though. It is pretty hard for a well-cared-for person to accidentally have fly eggs hatch on them. Fly eggs take a while to hatch and most humans are pretty good at swatting flies away quickly.

These parasitic flies are a greater concern for big, slow-moving livestock that don't shower & change clothes every day!

[haveyoureadthispoem-poll]

“The glitzy-bodied flies boogie-woogie to your static grin numbing you while sexy screwworms empty you like a black hole. Ecstasy that must look pretty from inside—to core not just an apple but the entire orchard the family even the dog.”

Read it here | Reblog for a larger sample size!

[windmill-ghost]

When I started, I told myself that I was going to stay general and not chose specific species of bug but. well. I changed my mind.

(Carolina mantis, Arizona wood cockroach, dog day cicada, virile crayfish, flannel moth, red-legged purseweb spider) Bugs are all found in America and don't correspond to the guys' places of origin, due to the "teleportation accident" premise.

I might have to make a new Soldier design with a more specific fly in mind... I'm thinking maybe a screwworm or greenbottle.

[annahanover]

tried to find pictures of deer and worms... only found pictures of screwworm infected deer...

[ewasteorpheus]

"A Brother Named Gethsemane" - Natalie Diaz

Naked blue boy put down your pipe. They found your shoes in the meadow. Mom’s and Dad’s hearts are overripe.

Pluck that crimson orb rusted package from the branches mother’s arms our tree you’ve chopped away at for too long with your mouth-bright ax pretty-teethed boy. Chop chop-ping. No stopping this Lost-boy-of-our-wilting-garden. Peter Pan wannabe. Peter be wanna pan. Oh don’t grow up now. Don’t turn away from the gapings on Mama’s trunk. Watch them glow with us electric gashes wounds like hurt-lanterns you’ve lit. Sit Indian-legged under this moon. Hurtling shiny bullet. Hungry boy. Licking your ruby-crusted lips. Fingerpicking father’s red-swelled eyes from where he cowers. A beat bush smoldering with shame. Old men should be allowed to sob in privacy. Turn up the radio. Tune in to the border stations those pirate Mexican heroin melodies. We’ve got to got to got to get back to that stinking garden.

Flyblown figs shimmer at you my bug-eyed boy. The glitzy-bodied flies boogie-woogie to your static grin numbing you while sexy screwworms empty you like a black hole. Ecstasy that must look pretty from inside—to core not just an apple but the entire orchard the family even the dog. Leave the shells to the crows. A field of red lampshades in the dark Garden of Myiasis. This is no cultivated haven. This is the earth riddled with a brother. The furrows are mountains. Waves of sand and we are ships wrecked. What’s left of a fleet of one hundred shadows shattered and bleached. A crop gone to sticks. The honeysuckle sags with bright sour powder. We have followed the flames followed him here where all the black birds in the world have fallen like a shotgun blast to the faded ground. The vines have hardened to worms baking in the desert heat. We are at the gate shaking the gate climbing the gate clanging our cups against the gate. This is no garden. This is my brother and I need a shovel to love him.

[realjaysumlin]

This needs explaining because I can't make sense out of this evil system of murdering innocent people. At first I told you about the screw worms being dropped on Panama and then I showed a video about the flies breeding farm, you have to follow this because it's a tale of two sides.

You first infested a place and then you say that you have another backup plan because the first one was a mistake. If anyone knows anything about American History, you would know how the hookworms infested the south that causes dizziness, absent mindedness and the lazy syndrome that many people believe that it was just another Black stereotype that the white people became infected by having touched someone Black and Indigenous.

You really can't make this shit up, this is why the people who call themselves white didn't want a Black Indigenous Person to touch them so they wouldn't catch the lazy disease.

[invidiaesc]

ENG

Please Help! ⚠️ Milk (my dog) is with a hurt in his paw and because of the heat (I'm from Brazil) he is with screwworm. The treatment is expensive (and there is the price of the sedation after cleaning). RT and any help with the treatment. Paypal: gabi.estrazulas@yahoo.com.br

I believe this happened because of the flies that sometimes come into the apartment because they leave the building's trash door open (which is near my ap.). He is suffering a lot from the pain, and the medicine is expensive, so I'm asking for help with the cost of treatment.

He doesn't have a left eye (this is a congenital problem) and because of this the larvae lodged in his paw (because of the injury) and in his eye (he ended up scratching his eye with his paw). His life is not at risk, but since we lost his brother toddy last year we are worried.

PT-BR

Por favor ajuda! ⚠️ O Milk (meu cachorrinho) esta com uma ferida na patinha e por conta do calor acabou ficando com bicheira. O tratamento é muito caro (e tem o preço da sedação para a limpeza). RT e quem puder ajudar com o tratamento agradeço. pix: gabi.estrazulas@yahoo.com.br

Acredito que isso aconteceu por conta das moscas que as vezes vem no apartamento porque esquecem a porta do lixo do edificio aberta (q fica perto do ap). Ele esta sofrendo muito com as dores, e os remédios são caros, por isso estou pedindo ajuda com o custo do tratamento.

Ele não tem o olho esquerdo (isso é um problema congenito) e por conta disso as larvas se alojaram na sua pata (por causa do machucado) e no olho (ele acabou coçando o olho com sua patinha). Ele não tem risco de vida. Perdemos seu irmãozinho toddy ano passado.

[great-and-small]

Hi! I was scrolling through your posts just now and saw your note about liking parasitology - i do, too! It was always one of my favourite parts of studying biology. What would you say if your 'favourite' parasite then? (i must admit I am impossibly fascinated by every aspect of Ascaris lumbricoides' whole deal - the lifecycle, how widespread it is, how resistant the eggs are... Also, they're just so beautiful inside, a cross-section of make makes for a very appealing image? Almost perfect of a being!)

I completely agree that going down the roundworm rabbit hole is shockingly fascinating. I literally love reading about historic research about ascaris in humans because so many early scientists ate worm eggs just to be like “see now there are these worms in my poop how crazy is that” lol. I got to present research on equine roundworms at a conference a few years ago and while they’re not as flashy as some other roundworms they’re still absolutely remarkable in the efficiency of their lifecycle. I got in trouble when I was working as an equine vet tech because I kept gushing to owners about how cool various horse parasites are, and obviously most horse owners do not agree with that stance.

It’s so hard to pick just one parasite as a favorite! I love all pentastomids, the tiny-but-mighty screwworm fascinates me, and and I find myself thinking about toxoplasmosis gondii all the time. I went as a lone star tick for Halloween year before last and I’m fond of the Guinea worm too for the historical relevance. Someday I will do superlatives for all my faves and hand out titles for most interesting, scariest, funniest, most nostalgic, etc. There will probably be a LOT of honorable mentions

[oscconfessions]

I am not creative so I will copy n paste everything my friend called me this day and redirect it at this blog Spirometra taipan boomslang schistosomiasis spermatozoa anthrax tapeworm neurotic 2 pound orange chihuahua Screwworm fly <- this all you

thank youuuu !! i always love com,pliment s like this 😊😊😊😊😊😊 -🫒

[seashellsandteacups]

A Brother Named Gethsemane

Naked blue boy put down your pipe. They found your shoes in the meadow. Mom’s and Dad’s hearts are overripe.

Pluck that crimson orb rusted package from the branches mother’s arms our tree you’ve chopped away at for too long with your mouth-bright ax pretty-teethed boy. Chop chop-ping. No stopping this Lost-boy-of-our-wilting-garden. Peter Pan wannabe. Peter be wanna pan. Oh don’t grow up now. Don’t turn away from the gapings on Mama’s trunk. Watch them glow with us electric gashes wounds like hurt-lanterns you’ve lit. Sit Indian-legged under this moon. Hurtling shiny bullet. Hungry boy. Licking your ruby-crusted lips. Fingerpicking father’s red-swelled eyes from where he cowers. A beat bush smoldering with shame. Old men should be allowed to sob in privacy. Turn up the radio. Tune in to the border stations those pirate Mexican heroin melodies. We’ve got to got to got to get back to that stinking garden.

Flyblown figs shimmer at you my bug-eyed boy. The glitzy-bodied flies boogie-woogie to your static grin numbing you while sexy screwworms empty you like a black hole. Ecstasy that must look pretty from inside—to core not just an apple but the entire orchard the family even the dog. Leave the shells to the crows. A field of red lampshades in the dark Garden of Myiasis. This is no cultivated haven. This is the earth riddled with a brother. The furrows are mountains. Waves of sand and we are ships wrecked. What’s left of a fleet of one hundred shadows shattered and bleached. A crop gone to sticks. The honeysuckle sags with bright sour powder. We have followed the flames followed him here where all the black birds in the world have fallen like a shotgun blast to the faded ground. The vines have hardened to worms baking in the desert heat. We are at the gate shaking the gate climbing the gate clanging our cups against the gate. This is no garden. This is my brother and I need a shovel to love him.

From WHEN MY BROTHER WAS AN AZTEC (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)