“This creature can pretend to be light reflecting in hair,” states this reader concerning the “weevil”-like creatures she has been finding all over her body. She wonders if they are plaster bagworms and hopes that we can shed some light on her issue.

At the beginning of her submission, our reader asks if “the woman who had been suffering for five years” got “any relief” after we wrote about her issue in a past article. While we do not know exactly which article she is referring to, we will say that our past readers do not typically give us an update, so we cannot speak on her behalf specifically. That said, we do know that, generally speaking, people have been put on the right track by utilizing the resources we provide.

In any case, our reader states that she has the “same exact pictures” as this other woman. As previously stated, the creatures she is dealing with can disguise themselves as reflections of light. In fact, even when our reader put a hood over her head, the creatures “still tried to camouflage” themselves. She adds that there is “always a large black one and a small white one together.” She thinks that they “project their image”, and that they look scarier than they are in reality. At the very least, this is what she hopes. At one point, she compares them to weevils, but at another point she says they “look like rolled-up lint.” This is what has her wondering if they are plaster bagworms (which is a species of moth larva that spins silken cases for themselves). She has been pulling these larvae out of her armpits, knees and the back of her head. Additionally, she has vomited up these creatures, which she has then preserved in alcohol. “No one believes me. Everyone thinks I’m crazy. However, I know what I’ve seen and I know I’m not crazy.”

We want our reader to know that we do believe her, and we do not think she is crazy. Unfortunately, just as we are not able to identify organisms for any of our readers facing potential parasitic infections (or who are at least dealing with organisms negatively affecting their health), we will not be able to identify this organism either. Since our reader makes clear that the worms are coming from her body, her issue calls for the opinion of a medical professional, which we are not. In particular, we recommend that our reader consults a physician specializing in parasitology and infectious diseases.

What we can recommend is that our reader do one or more of the following: 1) Search for a medical parasitologist in her area using this directory of medical parasitology consultants: https://www.astmh.org/for-astmh-members/clinical-consultants-directory. 2) Search for a local parasitologist by doing a Google search for “medical parasitologist (name of the closest big city)” or “tropical medicine specialist (name of the closest big city)”. 3) Get in touch with Dr. Omar Amin at the Parasitology Center at https://www.parasitetesting.com. In conclusion, we are unfortunately not qualified to directly help our reader with this issue or identify the organisms that are plaguing her. Despite that, we hope that the resources listed above come to use and prove helpful. Should our reader be wondering about anything else, she is welcome to contact us again. The same goes if she has any updates for us after consulting with a medical professional. We wish her the best!

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