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A video of an unusual "gross" sighting captured in a grassy yard has gone viral on Reddit.
The clip was shared by u/ImplicationOfDanger and has garnered more than 24,000 upvotes since it was posted on May 4. The post titled "What's this thing in my yard?" shows a dark, wet-looking blob squirming around in a patch of grass, moving itself in and out of the dirt.
Deby Cassill, an integrative biologist and associate professor at the University of South Florida, told Newsweek that "this is definitely a botfly larvae," noting that "most are internal parasites on mammals, digging into the scalp or entering the digestive tract."
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Cassill said: "The word 'bot' means a maggot. A warble is a skin lump or callus caused by the presence of a botfly maggot under the skin. The human botfly, Dermatobia hominis, is the only species of botfly whose larvae ordinarily parasitize humans, though flies in some other families episodically infect humans."
Botflies are widely distributed and seasonally abundant parasites of small mammals in North America, notes an October 2022 study in the Journal of Mammalogy.
The study says: "When a mammal encounters botfly eggs, its body temperature triggers the eggs to hatch and the newly emerged, minute first instars enter the host through a moist natural body opening, generally the mouth."
The larvae migrate through the body cavity, where it will mature over 19 to 21 days. Mature larvae emerge from the host via the warble and "quickly burrow underground, where they pupate and may overwinter," the study says.
So, what should you do when you find a botfly larvae? Cassill advised killing it by "any acceptable means possible," be it squashing, freezing or using insect pesticide.
She added: "I would check pets to see if any have an exit wound from the botfly larvae. Apply an antibiotic if such a wound is located."
'Fascinatingly Gross'
Viewers of the viral Reddit clip were both captivated and horrified, including Cassill, who told Newsweek: "This video is fascinatingly gross like a train-wreck; I couldn't not watch it several times," adding "I have never witnessed a botfly larvae digging into the soil."
U/Silly-Prune5444 said: "That thing is huge if it's a bot fly. we always kill that which we don't understand. So kill it."
U/COSMiKMiND commented: "That thing makes me not want to mow my lawn or even walk on my lawn in fear of finding one … shudders."
U/cjtiger300 posted that it is "Nightmare fuel" and u/GoBackToHel wrote: "Gross. That's what it is …"
U/No_Drawer_1070 simply said: "Time to move bro."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via the Reddit messaging system. This video has not been independently verified.
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