Scientist is letting an insect grow in him as a rite of passage

For most people, a larva burrowing ever deeper into your back would not be a cause for celebration.

But most people aren’t entomologists (people who study bugs), and apparently, some entomologists live for this shit. According to Phil Torres, a tropical biologist and entomologist, it’s a rite of passage for some of those who study bugs.

We’ll have to take his word for it—he’s the one letting a botfly (a parasitic fly that plants it’s young in the sweet, sweet meat of humans) slowly eat the inside of this back.

"I know some older entomologists that have done this exact same thing, and they used to tell me stories when I was an undergrad about the time they got a botfly and they waited to see how long they could last with it,” Torres told VICE. “It's kind of this rite of passage, you could say."

Torres says he must have been bitten by a mosquito with a botfly in early March—just a few days before his 33 birthday. It makes sense he got the little nightmare creature in his back, the man spends a good chunk of time in the rainforest. He's lived for two years in the Amazon where he was working in research and conservation—making a few big discoveries—and has worked on a ton of educational television shows, and routinely spends time in the rainforest. His current project is the YouTube channel The Jungle Diaries and he’s planning on making a video of his experience with the botfly for it.

After all that time in the forest, this is the first time he’s gotten a botfly—it’s quite rare, so don’t go cancelling your trip to the Amazon because of this story. And he is, for lack of a better term, stoked about it.

Once he realized it wasn’t “some strange pimple,” he excitedly tweeted about it and, as he puts it, received “many a tweet from fellow entomologists saying they're jealous.” He’s not lying, one tweeted a congratulation and asked if he’s “planning a baby shower.” Another replied “they’ve been trying to get one for years,” and yet another said “lucky!!!! I've been wanting one for over a decade now!”

I decided to call up Torres to ask what the heck is going on in the entomology community, what it’s like to have a small creature slowly eating your back, and whether he’s going to carry his little one to term.

Full article: vice.com

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