AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Bug question

My wife and I recently visited Cocoplum Cay (near Hopkins) and then stayed in AC for the last part of our trip. We had a great time, and look forward to a return trip.

I have a "bug" question. We visited the Mayflower Reserve and Several Maya sites, but to the best of my knowledge, I found (hard to ignore) several small, black, about .05mm, critters burrowing into my skin that got me on AC. They itch like hell and caused a welt that resembles a blister about 7.0mm in diameter. I did what seemed to be the natural thing to do; I dug them out with a pin and hydrogen peroxide. All seems well at this point, but my wounds healed much faster than my wife's. So, who can tell me what these little guys were? Do I need to keep an eye out for any kind of delayed health concern? And finally, why didn't the infamous DEET in a can work as well as planned?

Many thanks in advance,
Mark

I guess there are no entimologists on the board today.

well if this doesn't prompt an answer, at least someone will come back and correct my spelling

That would be 'entomology'. study of cooties.

Botfly. More likely to pick up on the mainland and jungle areas then on A.C, although it can happen. Nasty stuff. It takes 'em a while to "dig in" so maybe that's why it seemed like San Pedro was the source.

thank you suzie

a few links that may be of interest...

http://www.cdc.gov/travel/camerica.htm

http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/NoCM200001.shtml

http://www.skinparasites.com/#symptoms

http://www.travelaccess.com/Health/camerica.htm

also may have been a young bot fly. try searching bot fly on this board or the belize board ( http://www.belizeforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi ) and google.

How long ago were the bites? The botfile leaves its larva inside the host until it is ready to hatch. If you have not already done so have them removed ASAP. thick coat of salve will cut of the o2 to the pest and it should try to exit but if it can not it will die. The extracting it will be the fun part. Hemos and a steady hand with lots of needing kind like the popping of a zit (gross)

ScubaJohn et al.,
Thanks for the response to my question. We were in the rainforest on July 13th and the 16th. All of the information that I've found online indicates that we probably bit by some kind of mite, as there were numerous bites that appeared almost immediately. Once I got the critters out, they were very hard and would only crush with tweezers. Given that the Botfly is a larva, and that there at least 15 or so bites between myself and my wife, it doesn't seem like the BF was the culprit.

The link provided by Growsnomoss (Thank you!) also sounds quite likely. There is a burrowing sand fly that can cause similar symptoms.

http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/NoCM200001.shtml

At any rate, thanks to all for your feed-back. I'll keep this question open for a few more days.
All the best,
Mark

"Once I got the critters out, they were very hard and would only crush with tweezers."

That sure doesn't sound like sand flies to me. They bite and can leave a rash but they squash easy enough and as far as I know they don't burrow under the skin. I think some kind of mite like what we call a "chigger" here is your most likely guess so far.

Mark F.

Since you replied to my posting I'll try help you with yours. Did the bites seem to concentrate around places where your cothees were tight to the skin? i.e. - Waistband, socks, etc.? If so, they probably were chiggers. My uncle was in the army and he often got chiggers while in boot camp and in the jungle. He also said they itched like hell but were more of a nuisance then posing any real health risk.

Of course, this doesn't mean you didn't get them at VH but I hope you didn't because I'm considering a stay there.