An unidentified Greek woman’s close encounter with a family of sheep is nothing to sneeze at. It all started next to a field of grazing sheep in Greece, where the 58-year-old was working outdoors. She noticed numerous flies swarming around her face, and about a week later began experiencing pain in her sinuses. The next few weeks brought severe coughing, but no other symptoms. Then one day, she sneezed and out popped a worm. Soon after, an ENT got to work surgically removing 10 larvae and a pupa (a teenage insect between the larval and adult stages) from the sinuses on the side of her nose. With the help of some nasal decongestants, the woman made a full recovery. DNA testing of the dislodged critters revealed that they were baby sheep bot flies, a parasite with a well-documented history of taking up residence in the nasal passages of sheep and goats. So how did this horror show wriggle into being? There have been a handful of cases of these flies setting up shop in human cavities, most commonly around the eyes — a condition known as ophthalmic myiasis — rather than in the nose or mouth. Historically, the larvae in those cases were unable to develop past the first larval stage into full worm-like creatures. The 58-year-old "wormectomy" patient apparently had a seriously deviated septum, keeping the interlopers from being sucked into the nasal passages and allowing them to camp out in the sinuses.
