The bot fly then releases the mosquito or tick and hopes it will find a good host -- like Dairman -- to bite. The warmth of the blood the mosquito sucks from the body prompt the bot-fly eggs to hatch.

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.

They don’t, but that’s only the second most interesting misunderstanding of the bot fly’s biology. Asa Fitch (1809-1879) was a sober-minded scientist not given to flights of fancy.

Doctors thought the strange, bleeding bumps on Aaron Dallas’ head might be from gnat bites or shingles. Then the bumps started moving. A doctor found five active bot fly larvae living beneath ...

It turned out those were no ordinary mosquito bites; they had bot fly larvae in it. Bot flies are parasites that don't have their own jaws, so they can't sting.

CARBONDALE, Colo.—One doctor thought the bleeding, strange bumps on Aaron Dallas’ head might have been a gnat bite. A specialist thought it was shingles, though both doctors held out the ...

Adult bot flies are hairy and look like bees, without bristles. The larvae, about one-third the size of a penny, were living in a pit 2 to 3 millimeters wide. They were removed last week.