When insects aren't insects anymore

Not for the Weak-Hearted
This post might make your computer a little laggy as it contains over 10 videos.

Why begin the post with a clear warning? It's because today's post is pretty much about insects. Well, maggots to be more precise.

It all started with Syuh and her discovery of seeing videos of coke causing maggots to grow on pork.


Here's the video:

From what I know, maggots are the larval stage for the common flies. They feed on dead tissues, and take less than a day to grow. So is it really possible for maggots to be formed on the pork that had been soaked in coke? Coca Cola, like all 'gas drinks' contain carbonic acid which is 'strong' enough to cause a nail to rust. However, is it possible to cause pork to rot?

Anyone willing to try this experiment out for me?

That was where my own journey filled with curiosity began. I had the habit of clicking stuff that looks tempting to me, but I always end up hitting myself for making such a move. And this time, I did the very same. I went crazy over the 'Related Videos' bit and began clicking videos after videos.


First, I side tracked a little as I found a video that showed how 'powerful' ants were. Apparently, these ants were able to digest an entire house lizard/Cicak/ I-have-no-idea-what-its-called-in-Mandarin-nor-in-Tamil.


This, my friends, is simply amazing. Watch it, and you'll know what I mean.





Realizing that I was side-tracking from the initial task of finding more maggot videos, I hopped back on trail and this was the first video that I found. Maggots are also known as Botflies. And both of these dogs had maggots in them. Coincidentally, both of them are in Costa Rica (is it a botfly infected place?). I have no idea why there are botflies in the first dog, but I do know that the second dog was injured in some barb wires. The wounds were not healing (of course lah, infected what. Rusty barb wires right) and they soon discovered botflies near the mouth of the poor dog. Here are the videos of the process where both the owners try to remove the evil botflies.











For animal lovers, it may have been cruel to see such a painful process. However, the 'fun' doesn't end there. Here's one, where the owner of a cat found a botfly in the rat that the pet caught. The black thing on the left of the video is actually the eye of the rat. Obviously, it's been chewed up by the cat. But that's not the main point. The main point is to have a look at the botfly that's movig near the rat. Awesomely gross!






This time, it's a squirrel. It's a little more gruesome as the boyfly is wriggling in the squirrel the entire time. The main focus is again, not on that nor is it on the squirrel, but rather, the size of that bloody maggot!





Now that's all for the torurous part for you animal lovers. On to the more squimish parts! Botflies in humans!


Let's begin with this girl who had a botfly in her neck. What hit me hard was the hole that the maggot caused when it was squeezed out of the girl's neck. The freakin' hole is like the size of a bubble tea pearl!

Okay, maybe a little exaggerated. But still...






And on to the head. This unfortunate lady was returning from Costa Rica (See, almost all the cases are from there!). She seemed fine at first, but over the next couple of days, her head began swelling. Tests showed that she had a botfly growing in her head. Watch as the doctor pulls out the maggot from her head (you never know what's in you until it's too late).

She even gets to keep it as a souvenier!





The last two videos, have nothing to do with maggots. I happened to side track again as I found an interesting video about parasites growing in our stomachs because of processed food, fast food and all the major no-nos.


The creepy fellow actually looks like a small dragon!


Unfortunately, the embedded request is denied, thus you have to Click Here to see that dragon!

Click Here to see that dragon!
Click Here to see that dragon!
Click Here to see that dragon!
Click Here to see that dragon!
Click Here to see that dragon!


And lastly, the video that got me all freaked out. This video claims that we have worms in our faces. And the person actually proves it by wiping some stuff all over two man's face. Watch as this tiny whitish-transparent worms begin crawling out of the mans' faces.


Do we really have worms in our faces?!?!?



Loves.

Machines Of Malice part one: My Vicious childhood

I've edited the time for this post so that you'll read part one first, and then part two. Just so that you get what I'm talking.


If you've never been sadistic for a period of your life, that means you're gifted.






What do I mean by Gifted? Well, it means that you're so happy that you never once thought about bitch slapping someone, strangling someone to death, or any horrific thoughts of death on someone you despise. Yes, you're so happy that you're probably screwed in the head.


I however, used to be (or maybe am still) a sadistic person. As a child, I always waited for rainy days to come because it would mean that there would be tonnes of earthworm at, on, and around the playground where I used to stay. I would happily dig those poor drowning worms up and happily display them on the swings, slides and all the spots on the playground, even dangling on the rooftops. Then I would hide and wait for some stupid kid to go out and play. Where I lived, kids were squeamish. And a loud shriek from a girl who found an earthworm wriggling in her hair would make my day.


Now the fun did not end there.

Sometimes when the kids did not come out to play, I would take an earthworm and mutilate it. The awe of it's survival despite being severely mutilated, enticed me to cut it up into many more segments. Then I would take it's head (or was it the tail?) and throw it near a nest of ants to see what happens.


If that didn't cure my needs, I would then search for humungous (exaggerated slang) black ants and similarly sized red ones and have them attack each other. Little did I know that I was already having my own "WarCraft/ Command & Conquer" game going on.


(I actually had a lot of fighting fish back then to fight.. Duh..




But they were too beautiful so I kept them instead. But one day when I came home from school, I found all of them dead, because my brother made them fight one another. Was I depressed then..)


The red ones always seem to be victorious.





But I wasn't satisfied, and so, I'd take two red ants and interlock their pincers. Sometimes, I'd even throw in a spider of two. But mind you, I've been bitten a little too many times just for the sake of my curiosity. When it hurt too much for me to enjoy it, I'd then take chalk and draw circles around the ants. It's funny because ants just can't seem to walk across chalk. (I once did it by drawing a line in front of an ant, and it couldn't walk across it. Sadistic as I was back then, I couldn't help but to draw a circle, and then they were stuck in there forever.)

Don't get me started on the plucking of wings and legs. I'm sadistic, I know. Sue me.


After victorious exclaiming that they were at my mercy, I'd walk away and find some other insect to mess around with. And then I found snails...


I'd sprinkle salt all over them and watch in amazement as they squirm and struggle in their last throes of ressurection. Now don't blame me for being sadistic, one has to resort to ways before one can answer their own curiosity. And if you're wondering why snails and slugs die how they do, it's because of Osmosis.


*Side track (I may have failed Bio but I clearly remember Bio's Osmosis, because of that experiment that got my mind screwed. Hahah)

Snails and slugs have a high percentage of water in their body. Their skin is also more permeable and so when you pour salt all over the snail, the salt concentration on the outer surface is more than in the body of the snail. Osmosis is of a net movement of water molecules from a region higher water concentration to a region lower water concentration through a partially permeable membrane, in this case, the skin.

Thus, the water in the body of the snail, moves out of the body in order to have an equal concentration both on the surface and in the body. The snail then dies from dehydration because it is much dryer than it is.

(See! I made it without having to check any bio book! Okay, action ah..)


There were too many experiments that I carried in which I can't remember. Those mentioned above are the ones that I would do almost every single day. I was a lonely child then. Evil demons must have possessed me back then.

You should have seen when I had swung at full rage against red ants.

This is actually not the point of the post though, I wasted space just talking about my childhood and not the topic of the post. But who cares.


Part two, the actual post, shall be up next!




Loves.