What happens if a fly/mosquito/whatever harmful insect flies through your mouth and into your stomach?
I used to read a fictional story about a person who had a mosquito fly into their stomach, and yup, it took a big surgery to finally rescue them. The doctor said that the mosquito could “cause death since it bites the internal organs and leaves serious infection/diseases” and could “live and drain blood from the inside”.
Well, that was just one made-up story. I wonder what would happen in real life, if something similar happened. Would the insect cause death, or would they be dead themselves inside our body?
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It gets into your stomach and dies in all the acid in your stomach. Then microbes in your gut digest it.
Most of those bugs get coughed up though.
Happens all the time. I have swallowed mosquitos and other bugs – not on purpose – many times in my life.
They die in your esophagus and the stomach acid destroys them. THere is no danger at all. It will pass through and eventually be added to your sewage.
The one positive to swallowing flies is that they are a good (albeit very small) source of protein.
I can’t imagine anyone who has not swallowed his fair share of mosquitoes, gnats, no-see-ums and other small flying things. They also get up your nose from time to time.
The only problem I can see @Mimishu1995 is if the mosquito you have just ingested recently took a bite from an AIDS infected human.
You might then get the AIDS.
The candiru is the stuff horror movies are made of. It may not fly into your mouth, but it may swim into your urethra…
^^ True, if you happen to be hanging about the Amazon or Oranoco River, and skinny-dipping, and peeing.
@gailcalled The article even talked about a man carelessly letting the candiru slither right into an open wound in his hand. He could see it just below his skin. <shudder>
They have to say that mosquitoes can’t pass the AIDS on from biting an AIDS victim to then biting its next victim who now has AIDS too.
They have to say that or the ensuing panic might wreak havoc.
@Dan_Lyons: If you learn about AIDS, you’ll learn that a lot of what people fear about how it’s transmitted is not true.
Very common, especially in poor African countries, or India.
What, you never heard of having butterflies in the stomache?
I know an old lady who swallowed a fly…I don’t know why she swallowed the fly…. Perhaps she’ll die
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Yes, they would be dissolved in the digestive tract, no worries.
I recently found out though that my particular blood type is Malaria resistant, good to know if I run away to a tropical place without any vaccines. haha
The only “bugs” you have to worry about swallowing are the ones specifically designed to survive the rigors of the digestive tract, and they are few and far between. More to the point, of those which can cause you trouble, very few of them can fly.
Your stomach juices would kill it and you would digest it like food.
Ever seen this scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Stomach acid kills everything, as it is supposed to. It is our natural defense against bacteria in food. That is why it is not a good idea to go crazy with the antacids as that neutralizes that defense.
It dies, is digested and then shat out.
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