Flordia Man Has 150 Live Bugs Removed From His Nose After Feeling 'Off' For Months

It's the kind of footage that's hard to look away from, no matter how much it makes your skin crawl, and it's bound to make anyone watching think twice about their hand hygiene practices.

Describing the sensation of having over 100 bugs squirming inside your nose for months as merely feeling 'off' doesn't quite capture the severity of the situation. 

Yet, this is exactly what a man from Florida (because, of course, it happened in Florida) experienced, leading to a rather alarming discovery in October 2023 when he finally sought medical attention after feeling unwell.

Diving into the gory details of this nightmare, the patient recounted the onset of his symptoms: 

A man from Florida got a shock when he went to the doctors after feeling ‘off’ for months. Credit: First Coast News

"Over a couple hours my face just started swelling, my lips swelled, I could hardly talk. My whole face felt like it was on fire," he explained. 

"I started getting nose bleeds, constant nose bleeds. I couldn't even get up to go to the bathroom without my nose starting to bleed. When I went for the examination the doctor says, 'I see movement'."

Remarkably, the patient was at a loss as to how the bugs found their way into his nose.

He speculated that it might have been due to his careless approach to washing his hands after handling dead fish during fishing expeditions.

Further complicating his situation, the man had battled neuroblastoma, a type of cancer, 30 years prior.

The removal of a cancerous tumor left him with a severely weakened immune system, making him more susceptible to such infestations.

Recognizing the need for change, the patient remarked: "I know that I have to change my lifestyle as far as I handle fish."

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The inside of his nose is as grim as you are thinking. Credit: First Coast News

"Before, I would rinse my hands in the river, now I'll use cleaner to do a better job and not touch my nose or my hand."

Dr. David Carlson, the doctor responsible for the removal procedure, shed light on the detrimental impact the bugs had on the patient's health, describing how they created a 'toxic environment' within the nose. 

"Thankfully he prompted me to take a closer look at the nose bleed, so we took a camera and looked in the nose and that's when things dramatically changed," Dr. Carlson stated. 

"When they feed they also create excrement. Larvae shed tissue and excrement and that creates a toxic environment that creates the inflammation because there was significant abnormality in that nose."

He went on to describe the size of the insects, noting, "Size wise there's variations, but the larger ones were as big as the end of my pinky."

The thought of such creatures dwelling inside one's nose, feeding and excreting, is indeed horrifying.

To combat the infestation, the patient was prescribed an anti-parasitic medication along with a specialized anti-parasitic rinse for his nose.

He will undergo evaluations up to four times a year but is thankfully expected to make a full recovery.

Watch the video if you've the stomach for it: