Entomologist and wildlife photographer Piotr Naskrecki is not squeamish. He recently allowed two human bot fly larvae to grow to maturity under his skin and documented the process in a short film.

Not all human botfly infestations require a surgeon to intervene, though: Communities in the tropics that are more acquainted with the pests have their own home remedies, the case report authors said.

The human botfly does not bite or lay its eggs on people, but enslaves smaller flies and mosquitoes by gluing its eggs to their bodies. When the slave bites a victim, the eggs hatch into larvae ...

At some point, a doctor suggested a human botfly infestation, and they attempted to extract the larvae with Vaseline. The approach works because it blocks the hole in which the larvae breathe ...

Stock image of human botfly larvae. A woman who was traveling across South and Central America found two larvae inside a boil on her arm five weeks after returning home. iStock / Getty Images Plus ...

At left is the lesion created by a human botfly larva (Dermatobia hominid) in order to breathe. Inside was the deeply embedded maggot with rows of spines to prevent the host from removing it ...

The human botfly is a bug common in the tropics, and rare in the United States, according to the report published last month. The bug lays its eggs on insects like flies or mosquitoes, which then ...

What has barbed hooks, lives in flesh, and can be removed with bacon? The human botfly, of course. I’m Anna Rothschild, and this is Gross Science. Human botflies, also called Dermatobia hominis ...

The maggots were the larvae of the human botfly (Dermatobia hominis), a large fly that resembles a bumblebee, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

The human botfly, like the one found in the Tampa woman, is from Central and South America, usually from Mexico to northern Argentina.

Botfly larvae are typically found on the genitals, scalp, breasts, and eyes, and, according to the case report, some patients can feel the larvae moving when they shower or cover the wound (cringe).