WOooo! Lumpy squirrel on the feeder! God help me, I'm excited to see…

WOooo! Lumpy squirrel on the feeder!

God help me, I'm excited to see that the local squirrels have botflies. Obviously I am sick in the head.

For those readers who've joined us since last summer, the squirrels in North Carolina (and many other places) are afflicted with a parasite known as squirrel botflies, which burrow under the skin, cause a huge bald lump, and then hatch out. It's generally not harmful to the squirrel, although I must assume they don't particularly enjoy it--you're not supposed to try to catch them and remove them, since the stress of capture is apparently far greater than the annoyance of having a bug hanging off you. It causes the squirrels to get a rather disturbing Quasimodo-ish look for awhile, and leaves a distinctive round scar.

The first of the defective wildlife I began watching was Lumpy the squirrel. So there's a weird kind of nostalgia attached, which probably is a sign that I am a major freak.

I suggest not googling, unless you have a remarkably strong stomach.

34 comments — :

( 34 comments — Leave a comment )

netpoet22

2006-09-01 05:44 pm (UTC)

I googled the last time you mentioned Botflies. You won't catch me that easily the second time around!!! *shakes fist* hehee... glad to see your local wildlife is mutating into the comfortable weirdness you're more used to. :D You have to admit, it *DOES* make for some gosh-darn entertaining LJ entries.

>Matt

xvsharrax

2006-09-01 05:49 pm (UTC)

I think I'll google it anyway = P

If it amuses you, it's worth looking at!

drharper

2006-09-01 05:53 pm (UTC)

*grins*

Careful. Humans have been known to incubate botflies too.

sithjawa

2006-09-01 06:14 pm (UTC)

It's a different kind, though, and not found in the States.

........Riiiiight? *makes "will have to ward off nightmares for weeks" noises*

Human botflies are weird and unsettling, and they're (I assume) much smaller in comparison to a human than something similar would be in comparison to a squirrel. Poor squirrels.

2006-09-01 06:21 pm (UTC)

Yeah, it is a different species which is normally found in tropical areas...

...but given how insects can hitch rides through modern transportation. ;)

But the risk is so small as to be absurd if you've not been out of the States.

jehannamama

2006-09-01 06:23 pm (UTC)

However, I would imagine that somewhere, at some time, some human has gotten a squirrey botfly larvae in some horrid spot.

*shudders*

Welcome Lumpy Squirrel!

sofish_sasha

2006-09-01 09:35 pm (UTC)

Oh eys, there is. If you do a pic search at google you get some really nice photos of some pore sod having a botfly larvae surgically removed from under his/her eye. This I learned last time Ursula mentioned botflies. :-)

2006-09-01 09:36 pm (UTC)

Oh, and that's "poor", not "pore". *facepalm*

_nessa_lykke_

2006-09-02 02:23 am (UTC)

After having a botfly larva extracted from under his eye, I'd imagine he's got the claim to the word 'pore' also.

sionainn

2006-09-01 06:25 pm (UTC)

I googled because I have an insatiable curiosity about gross things (then gross myself out and regret it! ;-P)

Amusing thing is that links to your LJ are first, second, and third in Google when you put in "squirrel botflies."

Interesting, that.

ursulav

2006-09-01 06:26 pm (UTC)

You don't want to know how proud I am of that fact, either.

ebony14

2006-09-01 06:35 pm (UTC)

And now I have an image of Charles Laughton as a hunchbacked squirrel, swinging on your feeder and shouting, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" :)

elsolylaluna

2006-09-01 06:57 pm (UTC)

From this journal, I have learned:
1) centipedes bite/sting (I just thought they were creepy little guys who ran fast)
2) several plant names and what they attract in terms of fauna
3) why, exactly, I have had Quasimodo squirrels in my backyard.
Color me educated.

By the way, Ursula, I am completely hooked on Digger, but I'm at the point in the archives where your host tells me I have to pay to read. As a broke college student, I can't really do that without giving up a meal in the process. Any way I can access the archives without paying?

keshwyn

2006-09-01 07:25 pm (UTC)

If you wait for Digger to get nominated for another award, they usually make the archives free to peruse in hopes of garnering more votes. :}

2006-09-01 07:27 pm (UTC)

I suppose patience is a virtue. Thanks for the tip!

2006-09-01 09:17 pm (UTC)

*grin* That's about the only way, yeah.

dancing_feather

2006-09-01 07:42 pm (UTC)

Umm... th squirrels at my school are Crazy! They are seriously everywhere and they're just a little wack in the head. I go to Guilford btw, so I can believe that squirrels in NC are just a smidge.... off....

urbpan

2006-09-01 07:45 pm (UTC)

I would guess also that removing the botfly larva exposes the squirrel to a higher risk of infection. This is the case with human hosts, at least (as a coworker's first hand account has it.)

I can't wait to see the paintings of Lumpy.

jennybean42

2006-09-01 08:39 pm (UTC)

click,you know you want the grotty:
http://botfly.ifas.ufl.edu/wrbpex/wrbpex.htm

bluecurlystraw

2006-09-01 09:44 pm (UTC)

Auuuuugggggh! I'm such a freaking masochist.

2006-09-01 10:01 pm (UTC)

I was about to be grossed out. But then I saw the word "warble" and started giggling. And then I closed the page before any of it could sink in.

...Warble.

camelai

2006-09-01 09:41 pm (UTC)

Botflies. *shudder* I have an interesting botfly story. I recently took a class on "higher invertebrates" which of course, means mainly crustaceans and insects. And of those, mainly insects. In the portion of lecture dealing with botflies, my professor told us about his friend who PURPOSELY cultivates botfly larvae ON HIMSELF. *shudder*
I had no idea there was a kind of botfly in the US. Gross. *shudder*

havaheart

2006-09-01 10:16 pm (UTC)

That is horrid. disgusting, awful...you know what? I could have gone my whole life without knowing that, and I wouldn't have missed it at all.

And I haven't even googled it. My god, that is the kind of thing I have nightmares about. SO. NOT. COOL.

I'm not sure I have the stomach to read your livejournal. Your journal should have a rating. PG-13: People Strongly Cautioned: Not Recommended for Wusses

2006-09-02 01:45 pm (UTC)

The life of anyone observing nature is full of occasionally disgusting interludes, I fear...

2006-09-04 04:10 pm (UTC)

Ah! So that must be why I'm not a nature person. No wonder.

b00snuffles13

2006-09-02 01:34 am (UTC)

i must be a sick person, i googled it. hooray!!!

Completely unrelated to this post . . .

redwaltz

2006-09-02 02:53 am (UTC)

I found this page: http://valuca.funtigo.com/?preview=y&g=25544746&cr=1&rfm=y while stumbling about the internet. I instantly though of you because you've made a few mentions about clouds that look as if you painted them people would doubt your ability to paint clouds.

Re: Completely unrelated to this post . . .

2006-09-02 03:06 am (UTC)

Yup, I've seen some of the billow cloud types before. They're completely nobody-would-believe-that...

zellion

2006-09-02 03:02 am (UTC)

I googled it merely because you cautioned not to. I figured, hey, I'm a nursing student. I was right. I've googled worse medical things before.

Human Botfly

johnraptor

2006-09-02 04:32 am (UTC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2pjsffDfY

Re: Human Botfly

drhoz

2006-09-03 01:44 am (UTC)

somebody please tell me why they used footage of a bee in place of a botfly in that clip...

(Anonymous)

2006-09-02 06:54 am (UTC)

I suppose it would be too much to expect you to hunt down each individual squirrel and give them the Steak Treatment.

2006-09-02 01:42 pm (UTC)

The websites specifically tell you not to go catching the squirrels to get their botflies--it's apparently not that big a deal for the squirrels, whereas getting caught by somebody waving a steak around would give the little dears near-heart failure.

opheliasaffair

2006-09-03 12:41 am (UTC)

My cat was a rescuse from a colony on a farm I was working on a few years ago, and when I got her I had to remove one of those nasty f**kers out of her neck.

Nasty business, that. But it healed up nice, and now her fur is white where the scar used to be.

ursulav

Bark Like A Fish, Damnit!

(no subject)

Completely unrelated to this post . . .

Re: Completely unrelated to this post . . .

Human Botfly

Re: Human Botfly