[Narrator] Just look at these baby goats.

I'm showing them to you in the hope

that their cuteness will insulate you

from what you're about to see.

This is not a baby goat.

It is in fact the larvae of a botfly erupting

out of human skin.

There are several species of botfly

that parasitize a range of mammals

from horses to squirrels to you and me.

They are, I want to tell you, horrible.

The female botfly that targets horses

lays her eggs on the hide.

When the horse licks the area, it picks up the eggs,

which hatch into larvae and attach to its stomach.

Here's animation of another botfly

that tackles a mosquito mid-flight

and attaches her eggs to the insect's belly.

When the mosquito feeds on a human,

body heat triggers the eggs to hatch into larvae,

which burrow into the wound.

But it pokes its rump out of your skin so it can poop.

Which is courteous.

Now, you can use tweezers to yank the botfly larvae out,

but that'll be uncomfortable

because it's covered in spines that anchor it in your flesh.

But if you let it develop for three months or so,

it will back out on its own.

Ideally, it will drop into the soil

and grow into an adult, starting the process all over again.

But enough of that.

Here's a goat on a green screen.

(laughs)

Goat on a green screen.