A woman in Greece experienced a startling medical event: she sneezed out maggots.
Doctors documented the unusual case in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The 58-year-aged woman was found to have larvae of the sheep bot fly infesting her nasal cavity and sinuses. Despite the disturbing discovery, medical professionals were able to remove the larvae without complications.
“She was treated with nasal decongestants, and she recovered completely,”
“Worms” in the Nose
The woman had been working outdoors near a sheep pasture on a warm day in September 2025 when she noticed a swarm of flies around her, according to the report.
Approximately one week later, she began experiencing increasing pain in her upper jaw. Two to three weeks after the initial exposure, she developed a cough, but no other symptoms. Eventually, even as sneezing, she reported “worms coming out of her nose.” Seeking medical attention, specialists examined her ears, nose, and throat, identifying the expelled material as fly larvae. Doctors extracted 10 fly larvae at various stages of development from the woman’s maxillary sinuses.
Analysis confirmed the larvae were from Oestrus ovis, commonly known as the sheep bot fly.
“Biologically Implausible”
As the name suggests, this fly typically causes issues in sheep.
The fly begins its life cycle as larvae in the nasal passages of sheep, migrating to the sinuses to mature. The larvae then return to the nasal passages, where they are typically expelled through sneezing, falling to the ground to pupate – a stage similarly shared by insects like butterflies. They eventually mature into adult flies, restarting the cycle.
Human cases of sheep bot fly infestation are rare. Whereas, this case is particularly unusual, not only since of the sneezing of larvae, but also due to the stage of development observed.
Humans are typically accidental hosts for this fly, and in most reported cases, the larvae do not fully mature within the human body. Recent reports have documented larvae in humans reaching the second or third stage of life, but usually in individuals with compromised immune systems. This case, however, marks the first documented instance of O. Ovis larvae reaching the pupal stage inside a person – a development considered “biologically implausible” in mammals, according to the report’s authors.
An Unusual Case Due to Anatomy
Generally, human sinuses do not provide the appropriate temperature, humidity, or other conditions necessary for the development of the O. Ovis pupa. However, doctors noted the woman had a significantly deviated nasal septum. This structural abnormality, combined with an unusually heavy infestation and other unknown factors, may have created the ideal environment for this rare occurrence.
However, and perhaps more concerningly, doctors speculate that “the case could represent an early indication of evolutionary adaptation allowing parasites of O. Ovis to complete their life cycle in humans.”
Regardless, medical professionals say more data and cases are needed to understand how this occurred, and advise clinicians in endemic areas to be aware of the possibility of these infections.
Personally, I’d prefer to avoid becoming the evolutionary stepping stone for sheep bot flies, and definitely don’t want to sneeze out maggots.
This article was translated from Gizmodo US by Lucas Handley. Here you can find the original version.
