Bot Fly
 

A word of warning to anyone who returns from Costa Rica or Belize with painful mosquito bites which seem to worsen rather than heal with time - get yourself to a travel clinic. You could have been infected with Bot Fly larvae. I have just had 3 removed 2 weeks after returning to the States. It was the grossest thing I have ever experienced but once you go to someone who knows what it is they can be removed, the process is painful but better than having them growing and moving inside you causing intense pain!

Can I ask where you visited that you got these disgusting bites? Man, that sounds gross!

I travelled around a bit while I was there, visiting Arenal, the Nicoya, San Jose and Drake Bay but figuring when they started to be a problem my guess is I was infected in Drake Bay.

The local way to treat botfly larvae is to cover the air hole of the larva under your skin with vaseline; alternatively to put a tobacco paste on the area. Both (sometimes) work. Botflies are fairly common in many tropical and sub-tropical area. In the U.S. I've seen squirrels, cattle and other animals with botfly larva.

--Lan Sluder
www.belizefirst.com

thanks for the reminder about those gross insects and for the tips on treatment - we're leaving for CR in a coupla weeks - i think we'll now avoid drake bay!
though i haven't been bitten, i've been with fellow travellers who have - no fun! once in belize city we spotted a huge bot fly in our hostel room, ran out yelling bot fly!!, whereupon the whole hostel emptied out onto the street until some brave soul ventured in to dispatch the beastly creature.

Actually, it's not the botfly that you have to be concerned about, but mosquitoes.

The botfly lays tiny eggs on a mosquito. When the mosquito bites you, the botfly eggs drop off on your hot skin and quickly hatch, and the baby larvae attach to your skin and then bore into your muscle or fat tissue where it grows. In a week or two it will get big enough to come out on its own, but by covering its air hole with petroleum jelly or tobacco paste it may decide to come out earlier. If not you can (or a doc) can cut it out.

--Lan Sluder

I had to have one removed from my cat here in Ohio. They are everywhere.

this is proving to be a valuable, if somewhat creepy, education - thanx. will stock up on deet.