For anyone who has the luxury of not knowing what a bot fly is, allow me to introduce it to you...only in the verbal sense of course, and unlike how I was introduced to them by mosquitos in August 2011.
The word "bot" in this sense means maggot. Bot flies deposit eggs inside a host and often do so by hijacking a mosquito to inject them. Once residing inside a host, the larva splays its hairs (they like their homes cozy), making it impossible to pluck them out. It continues to develop while breathing through the hole in which the host was penetrated.
My unwelcome settlers were discovered after Peter and mom noticed a few of my mosquito bites (after having spent time at a cottage up north and visiting family in a rural area) were extremely irritated and red-purple in color. It was decided that applying coconut oil may help to soothe my bites and that's when Peter noticed tiny air bubbles were forming with the oil. This is when mom initiated an online search that would very quickly teach us about the bot fly.
Dramatic pause here for how grossed out mom was increasingly becoming with each detail learned and visual impossible to unsee. For those of you wishing to empathize with her, please refer to google images of bot fly bites.
Now back to me, the host...and these squatters (3 in total) I was desperate to evict.
It turns out that the bot fly larva can easily be killed by taking away its air supply. This called for Operation Rot Bot. My bites were slathered with generous amounts of vaseline and bandaged up for 24 hours, after which time, Peter was able to pluck the suffocated larvae out. ROT FLY ROT!!
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