We’ve all seen the 3in leech that was pulled out of a backpacker’s nose one month after she returned from south-east Asia, but then again we’ve all heard the one about the fish that swam up a guy’s penis and stuck out a barb and then his wang fell off while he was travelling in Thailand. How much truth is there in gap yah horror stories? How can we separate the urban legends from the actual bugs that can actually shoot up your arse? We took five particularly gross travelling tales of woe and put them to the test. Horribly, most of them were valid things that can totally happen if you let your guard down while gap yearing. Or even if you don’t.
The Larvae In The Shoulder Story
‘My mate got what she thought was a mosquito bite in Mexico that just wasn’t going away. It was big and infected and horrible, and when she went to the doctor’s it turned out there were actual maggots living in it because a fly had laid eggs in her shoulder. They put vaseline and cling film over the top of it and, when the babies were all dead, the doctor squeezed the corpses out like a spot.’
True or false?
Yeah, this one’s probably true. Known as the botfly (heh heh, bot), it’s larvae are transmitted often through mosquito bites, where they stay under the skin and grow to be alarmingly large if you don’t cut off their air supply. So yes, vaseline and cling film is a top class way to kill botfly babies. One really creepy thing about the botfly, is that it lays its eggs inside mosquitos without them even realising, and the moment the mosquito bites a host, the eggs start hatching. Like zombies. Or something. Either way, we feel sick.
The Worm Out Of Your Arse Story
‘I travelled to Colombia in March and, nine months later, woke up with a weird feeling in my bum. I went downstairs to have breakfast, then felt it again and thought I was going to crap myself. When I went to the loo, and reached around, I actually caught hold of something hard tucked into my bumcheek and threw it in the sink. It was a large, 12cm-long worm.’
– Ashley
**True or false? **
Welcome to the world, roundworm. Horribly common, and totally horrible, roundworms can live inside the digestive tract for months before deciding to make a break for it out of your arse. And they can grow to lengths of up to 35cm. Get a ruler and have a look at how long that is. No, go on. Even more grossly, roundworms often come with absoltuely no symptoms, and usually infest your gut in large numbers – so if you've seen one, you probably have a few more knocking around in there. Places were you can catch roundworm include sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China and east Asia and the main symptom (apart from gastrointestinal problems in some cases) is ‘finding a large worm in your poo.’ So that’s nice, isn’t it?
READ MORE: Mosquito Bites, Air Con And Sand In Your Pants: How To Have Sex On Holiday
The Insect Up The Penis Story
‘A friend of a friend told me he was weeing in a river and a thing came out and went up his penis. It had a barb so he couldn't get it out again and the whole thing was really unsavoury and painful.’
True or false?
This is probably not true because, while such a parasite exists, only a handful of people have experienced it shooting up their penises (penii?). In case you’re curious, and if you want a good horror story to tell your boyfriend, there's a small fish called the Candiru that usually targets fish, shoots into their exposed gills when they breathe out, erects an umbrella like barb to secure their position and starts feeding on its giblets. When a guy pees, or swims in a river (the Amazon is the usual place to find these things), there have been recorded instances of Candiru getting into the urethra and erecting its barb. This is so painful that there’s no real hope in being able to pull out the fish, so it’ll make its way up a guy's urethra and start eating him. Then it gets so bloated, and the area around it gets so inflamed, that it can’t move so expensive and delicate surgery is really the only option.
The Parasites Burrowing Through Your Skin And Living Inside You Story
‘I got told that someone came back from travelling with loads of sores all over their body, and it turned out to be hundreds of tiny worms that had bored holes in their skin. They were living inside him.’
True or false?
Argh true. TRUE. In Africa, there are these really great parasites known as snail fever (because they latch on to snails, then get transmitted to humans) that, on contact with human skin, burrow into the body and head for the liver or the lungs where they feed. They lay eggs, and those eggs do the same. Once the parasites are mature enough, they can transfer into the digestive tract and hang out there, too. At this point, you’ll be suffering from anemia (they feed on blood, yeah? Cool), malnutrition, diarrhoea, fever and stomach pains.
The 'OMG Shut Up I Can't Even' Story
‘A friend of a friend of a friend went to South America where a spider bit her on the neck. She got a weird bubble and, when she came back, felt really ill. One night, the bubble burst and loads of baby spiders came out.’
True or false?
Holy crap that’s the worst thing we've ever heard, but thankfully it’s false. No breed of spider would lay its eggs in a human, although of course there are loads of parasites who would (see above) – this is something that is passed down generation to generation, despite not having any grounding in fact. Everyone’s got a friend of a friend who exploded with spiders, but, thankfully, this is just something for nightmares and really gross horror movies.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.