We did a little digging and learned that mango flies (or myiatic flies) are common in areas with hot and humid weather. When clothes are hung outside to dry, the female fly will lay eggs on them and the larvae then burrow under the skin when the clothes are worn.
1st sign - usually general itchiness
Within 3 days – painful, boil-like lesions develop
Over the next three days - pus emerges from each sore as it gets ‘ripe’ – as in ripe to express the worm (I’m told a fairly painful process).
Luckily, the problem can be easily avoided by simply ironing ALL clothing (as well as towels, sheets, etc) with a very hot iron to kill any eggs or by not wearing the clothes for 2-3 days after they have dried since the eggs don’t live that long.
Given how much I detest ironing, it was very important to my emotional wellbeing to find out whether or not such a thing was found in Niaguis. With any luck, no one had ever heard of such a thing and I wouldn’t have to take up ironing (it was bad enough that I had to wash everything by hand with water I drew from the well!).
Three different sources were consulted upon arrival and all reports came back favourable…"no such thing here in Niaguis”. In otherwords, NO IRONING NECESSARY! I had just finished washing all of our clothing the day Fanta, our “Bonne” (aka. Housekeeper - we’ll tell you about her another time), started with us (it was a Friday). She asked if we would like her to come back in the evening to iron all of our things and I of course said ‘no’. I knew I didn’t have to worry about mango worms and I’m not that particular with my clothes, so I was happy to tell her that anything that needed ironing could wait until Monday.
Saturday night, JP and I were awakened by the feeling of something crawling on us. Reaching for the light quickly, we were horrified to find our bed crawling with little worm like creatures with tiny wings! Mango worms? Could it be? Tried as we might to kill them all, we just couldn’t get to the end of them! For every one we killed, 10 more appeared out of nowhere. So up we were at midnight ironing our bed (mattress and all) and all of our clothing! Needless to say we didn’t sleep so well afterwards thinking we might have missed one!
I mentioned our experience to Fanta the next time I saw her - she didn’t seem at all surprised and indicated that was precisely why everyone ironed their wash! Did I mention that the 3 different sources we consulted were all men…they didn’t even know their wives ironed or why! Thankfully, Fanta enjoys ironing, especially with our electric, non-stick iron!
We still don’t know if we were actually woken by mango worms or not, but believe me when I tell you that unpleasant as they may have been, they aren’t nearly the worst/most repulsive thing Niaguis has to offer!
Just a few of the kids that hang out at our place everyday!
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