Where tiny terrors lurk

By Jesse Granger

Sunday, April 2, 2017 | 2 a.m.

The scariest monsters are the ones you can’t see coming — not because they’re hiding under your bed or in your closet, but because they’re too small to see with the naked eye, and waiting in hot springs, rivers and mosquitoes.

Luckily for Las Vegans, the desert isn’t conducive to parasites’ survival. That doesn’t mean there are none here in Nevada, but there are far fewer than in tropical places. Still, a mistake as simple as dipping your head beneath the water at the hot springs could be deadly.

Here are some of the scariest parasitic creatures out there and how they infect their hosts.

Loa loa (African eye worm)

• What it is: Commonly known as the African Eye Worm, the Loa loa is a blood-dwelling parasite found mostly in West Africa and parts of India. The parasite enters a human’s body when a deerfly bites someone after previously biting an infected person. The worms can be present throughout the body but are most famous for crawling around on the surface of the eye.

Loa loa can be inside a person’s body for months without signs of infection and can sometimes be detected only with blood tests, unless a worm enters the eye. The worm can usually be surgically removed from the eye, but that doesn’t cure the infection. The person must still take a strong medication called diethylcarbamazine specifically designed to take out the parasite.

• Can you contract it here? The parasite does not spread from person to person.

Botfly

• What it is: A botfly is a large, dark, bumblebee-sized fly that is even more terrifying as larva. The bug lays its eggs on other insects that feed off human blood, such as a mosquito or tick. Then, when the insect lands on a human, the eggs drop and the larvae burrow into the skin.

Using the human as warmth to continue its incubation, the larvae remain beneath the person’s skin for up to 10 weeks before eventually crawling out. Some people have even reported being able to feel the larvae moving underneath their skin. If the larvae die before completing the process, an infection could result and surgery would be needed to remove them.

• Can you contract it here? Botflies are usually found in South America so Nevadan’s need not fret. There are cases of them in Mexico be wary if traveling. If you do get infected by them, the easiest remedy is to cover the area with petroleum jelly. This suffocates the botflies and they can then be safely removed with tweezers the next day. An infection looks like a large white boil, which swells under the skin and can cause intense pain.

Naegleria fowleri (brain-eating amoeba)

• What it is: More commonly referred to as a brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism commonly found in warm freshwater like lakes, rivers and hot springs.

These amoebas can enter a person’s brain through the nose if his or her head dips below the water. A person cannot be infected by drinking the water. The symptoms — headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and even seizures and hallucinations — start to show after about five days. At that point, the disease progresses rapidly and the person usually dies within five days.

While Naegleria fowleri infections are rare (there were only 138 cases in the U.S. from 1962 to 2015), they are nearly always fatal. Only three people of the 138 cases survived. One of the cases was in Nevada, while California and Arizona recorded eight each. Children are most susceptible to the parasites, with 83 percent of the cases being in those under 18.

• Can you contract it here? There has never been a case of Naegleria Fowleri at Lake Mead, but a woman did die in 2015 after being infected by the parasite in the Colorado River in California. Because the infections are so rare and random it’s nearly impossible to prevent, but holding your nose or wearing nose clips when submerging your head in the water is the best way.

Candiru (pencil fish, toothpick fish, vampire fish)

• What it is: Possibly the most terrifying myth of all time belongs to the candiru. A tiny, translucent freshwater fish that lives in the Amazon rainforest and is famous for swimming up streams of urine to lodge itself into a person’s urethra.

Despite reports of candiru attacks on unsuspecting penises dating back to 1829, though, there has been only one documented case. In 1997, a 23-year-old Brazilian man had a candiru surgically removed from his urethra after he said it jumped into his penis from the water.

Scientists have refuted this claim, showing that it is physically impossible for the fish to accomplish such a feat. The myth that the candiru are attracted to urine also has been proven false.

Candiru also are commonly called pencil fish, toothpick fish and vampire fish.

• Can you contract it here? Dr. Stephen Spotte, who wrote the book “Candiru: Life and Legend of the Bloodsucking Catfishes,” once said the chance of a candiru ending up in your urethra are “about the same as being struck by lightning while simultaneously being eaten by a shark.”

Filarial worm

• What it is: Lymphatic filariasis is a parasitic disease caused by microscopic, thread-like worms that are carried from person to person through mosquito bites. The good news is one bite from a mosquito carrying the parasite isn’t enough to infect a person. For infection, a person must be bitten multiple times over a period of several months.

The worms enter a person’s body through the bloodstream and attack the host’s lymphatic system, which results in fluid collection and swelling. This can lead to massive swelling and infection, which can cause elephantiasis, a condition in which a part of the body becomes extraordinarily enlarged.

• Can you contract it here? Because Las Vegas is so dry, it’s unlikely to contract the parasite here, but across the world it is a major problem. According to the World Health Organization, “In 2000, over 120 million people were infected, with about 40 million disfigured and incapacitated by the disease.”