I set a mouse trap in my garage 2 days before Christmas after seeing some turds around my 410's intake manifold. (No-one sheets on my truck, dangit!!) I checked the trap Christmas morning--too easy. I noticed on the mouse's back that about mid section, left of the spine, there was something sticking out of it. At first I thought it was a baby (mouseling?) trying to escape it's dead mother by chewing it's way out, so I got my needle-nose pliers and yanked out what you see in the picture. The front and back on this larva look about the same, so I don't know if it was eating it's way in or out. It is almost an inch long, and about 3/4 of it was embedded into the mouse's back.

I took the picture today, and I was surprised to find that it was still alive after being caged in a zip-lock bag for over a week. The darn thing just could not hold still for it's photo shoot.

Anyone ever seen anything like this before? What kind of larva do you think it is? Do you think the mouse was carrying this thing around while it was still alive? Or do you think it homed-in on the dead mouse and embedded itself in less-than 48 hours?

All comments from well-trained animal biologists welcome.

[http://home.lewiscounty.com/~fluidpower/MouseWormCrop.JPG]

 

You have too much time on your hands.

 

was it lighter in color when you first found it? It looks like a worble (Flies lay eggs in the skin on the backs of the cattle. The egg hatches into a grub that grows and then works it's way out of the skin) to me.

dj

 

Holy Cow!!! I have one of those on my side!

I just thought it was an oddly placed third nipple...I guess I should go to the doctor.

When on two wheels-
FXSTC
Mesa- AZ

2003 F-350 V10

 

http://botfly.ifas.ufl.edu/

 

A 1973 Penny? I hate to tell you but they are pretty common

 

That, My friend, is a Cuterebra. We find them in barn kittens from time to time (probably more often in warmer climates), especially around the horse farms and other farms that have Bot flies. They are a displaced parasite in the skin of cats and we just pluck them out with a forceps, they can be tricky little buggers. They sit in the skin with their breathing hole up so they can get air through the hole you saw in the skin.
For us veterinarians, bots tend to be a problem as G.I. parasites in horses. Other bots can be problems in the skin of various other species.

 

Thanks, guys for the info. It seem as if they are quite a problem in certain areas, but I have never even heard of anything like that here in the NorthWest. Something that big in such a small animal like a mouse has got to be very painful. It would be like having a Coke bottle stuck in your side.

 

This is what it feels like
http://www.belmont.edu/Science/Biology/Bio112/myiasisman.html

 

That's some nasty schitt. I'd be pretty worked up if I had a larva in my shoulder...

XXL

 

Now, was that really necessary to show us that!
Ick!:-X23

 

i think that's great. that guy had some ***** to do that. he should get some sort of award i think. the part where it popped out fully grown would have freaked me out. id probably start running and screaming like a little girl. yuck thats too much.

 

>i think that's great. that guy had some ***** to do that. he
>should get some sort of award i think. the part where it
>popped out fully grown would have freaked me out. id
>probably start running and screaming like a little girl.
>yuck thats too much.


Yeah, a Darwin Award.......

 

Sounds like my Biology teacher