Yuck!

Ok, so we really like being Missionaries and we like to write about all our great adventures.  But it isn’t all horseback riding, eating delicious fruits and walking on exotic beaches.  Some things are just plain yucky.

We had heard about the dreaded mango fly—it lands on your unsuspecting laundry as it dries in the afternoon sun.  It lays its eggs without asking permission and then flies away with an evil smile on her face. It seems the egg then hatches and nestles in for a comfy stay until an innocent Missionary puts on the garment.  Then the worm slips off the clothing and cuddles into the warm and vulnerable skin of the victim.  Upon hatching will burrow into your skin using your body for incubation of the growing larvae. After 21 days, the adult morph will then dig its way out of your skin, hatching into the world.  It digs its way out of your skin like a dentist drilling your tooth without Novocain.

God bless Nestor though.  To protect us from these villainous creatures, he irons EVERYTHING.  Yes everything. Clothes, towels, sheets, underwear.   And for 20 months we were mango fly free. Until now.

Two such eggs invaded the Newburn home.  One, in my dear Emily, and the other to yours truly. Both ended up in places we could not photograph. 

 

Pete pulled one out of me this morning with tweezers. I was quite brave.  The screaming could only be heard for a few blocks and I refrained from using any of the inappropriate words that were running through my head. Pete showed me the lovely critter before flushing it down the toilet.  Who would have thought something not much bigger than grain of rice, could cause such pain.

Hoping this is our first and last experience with the mango fly.

-Joy