Feb 18, 2009

Eye of the Beholder

STOP!

STOP!

Stop right there. Don't go any further. Some things can't be unseen. You're brain isn't a hard drive from which you can permanently erase images. These images will sear into your neocortex, much to your eyeballs' dismay. Scroll down to find out why. But if you don't want to know why and you want to see previous posts, close your eyes and give your mouse wheel a few rotations, or press that Page Down button a few times. You'll be safe.

If you want to read on, you proceed at your own risk.

****

Behold the parasite known as the African Eye Worm. Yes, that's a parasitic worm in that poor soul's eyeball.

Read this Wikipedia article (link above) for all the gory details, but suffice it to say that the vectors for this parasite include bites from the horse, deer, and mango flies, and that you don't want this infection.





















...and you don't want this treatment...





















I've been denied the use of photos by offended photographers who say that all of nature is beautiful, not ugly. Well, I guess ugly truly is in the eye of the beholder (pun intended).

Thanks again, Becca. My eyes itch now--my one consolation: I've never been to West Africa.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

... I scrolled past it as fast as I could... and I STILL saw... things. I'm now so creeped out, my eyes are watering. This went way past ugly into the 'mentally traumatising' section. D:

Sabina E. said...

wow... JUST WOW.

but ugh, that worm looks like Hakka noodles. I swear I want to throw up.

Anonymous said...

ahahaha! I have to agree that not all of nature is beautiful. And I bet the people denying you photos would agree if they've ever had ANY parasitic infestation.

Anonymous said...

There's two things in nature that will traumatize just about anyone: 1) human nematodal parasites and 2) a dermatology text book. You could literally fill this website for years with images from those two sources.

morgan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

OH GOD you needed more scrollage room. I have a big monitor and that first image grabbed my attention before I could read the STOP warning. I really worry about the reader who voted it funny!

Vanessa said...

Ok, I am usually ok with just about everything there is - except eyeballs! Add some nasty worms, and that is the ultimate nightmare for me.
I have the willies something awful... must surf for big hairy spider pictures to make myself feel better.

Anonymous said...

yep, that's a bit gross...but somehow doesn't bug me as much as some of the spiders you've posted...now if there were EYE SPIDERS that would be next level ugly...

also...you need way more scroll room!!

Sabina E. said...

LOL, 3 people voted this as "funny"!!!

IT'S NOT FUNNY IF YOU GET A PARASITIC WORM IN YOUR OWN EYEBALL, FOLKS!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I watched a video of someone getting one of those taken out of their eye... it's pretty darn disturbing and just makes you get that weird feeling in your eyes.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who is disturbed by the huge amount of hair around that second pictures eye?? I mean eyebrowhairs UNDER your eye, thats not right!
On topic; I can only imagine how someone who has some worm in their eye, just wants to scratch them out! I would have itching hands all the time untill the docs rescued me...