No everyone this is not the chicken pox or mosquito bites or even bed bug bites... These are Mango fly larva. We have done very well over the past 2 years and had a very little real Congo bug experience. Others have had different ailments but alas we have made our way through unscathed... Until today. Ruth has not one... Not two... But 76 mango fly larva in her little tiny body.

She woke up yesterday with this sudden appearance of bites all over her and at first I thought they were just black fly bites cause we have had lots of those around lately. Then I thought maybe we had fleas or bed bugs brought in by the Cat... However today as I woke her up from her nap ready to sanitize everything in her room... I looked at the bites and they now had little black spots in them so I popped one just to be sure and voila out came a little larva of a mango fly.

Now this isn't really as disturbing as it is traumatizing to pop little larva like a zit out of your 15 month old as she cries because well... it hurts.

For those that don't know mango flies live around mango trees and lay their eggs on animals or on wet clothes then the eggs go into the skin and eventually come out as a fly. This is why we don't hang our clothes outside, well if you have a dryer or you iron everything it's ok but we don't do either. However they are known to also lay their eggs on little sweaty children playing outside which is how I believe that my little Rue came about them. 

Now friends don't fret, it's gross and bizarre to us Northerners it is something that can indeed be easily delt with, without long term effects. Nick and I had just become over confident in our non-mango-fly-getting history and we let sweaty Ruth play outside and then were to busy or too lazy to give her a bath after (bad mom confession). However a 'bath every night' mandate is going to be submitted for law when the other half of the government gets home tonight.