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I am sure that there must be loads of Putsi Fly in Kruger at the moment. Why I say this is, that this year, for the first time in many years, we have an absolute outbreak/investation here in Swaziland at the moment. The conditions are just right, its been damp and its hot and humid. We are the same kinda altitude, and flies dont know anything about borders or boundries, and Swaziland is not many kilometers south of the Park.

I would suggest that travellers be aware of it, and do not let any of their damp clothes hang out on open verandahs, or tents or anything to dry. Its a perfect spot for the fly to lay its eggs and then when you put on the clothes, the eggs will hatch, and bingo you will have putsi fly hatching in you!!! They are disgusting insects. If you have to dry anything, make sure you IRON it..... that kills the eggs.

If you get a sore that looks like a boil, it may not be, it is just as likely to be a Putsi Fly! (Its a horrible maggot that eats your flesh!!!) AG sis man. But its around this year in massive quantities.

You're right Jazil. There has already been an outbreak of skin disease because of the Putsi Fly in Mafikeng, North West, South Africa. And this is apparently a region it's not usually found in.

Read here and here for more. It sounds absolutely horrible, especially the second story!

Thanks for the warning! I'm in Swaziland in May, let's hope I don't take home any souvenirs

madach, by May there should not be any Putsi fly around, its definately normally only in hot, damp, humid conditions and by then it should be dry.
I have known and experienced Putsi fly since my kids were small, and that is years and years ago
Both my twins had them when they were only a few months old. 27 in the one and 21 in the other, it sounds revolting and it is They got it from sleeping in their cot on sheets that were obviously not ironed properly. My daughter had one in the top of her head!!
That was when we lived in the lowveld of Swaziland. We have never had them before where we live now in Swaziland which is the middleveld, but they are here. My daughters little puppy has quite a few. We think from sleeping on a blanket that was damp and never ironed. (Do you normally iron dogs blankets??)
Dont squeeze them out, you rather have to pull the skin around the sore away from the sore and they then pop out, if they are big enough! If you squeeze them or try to squeeze them out, they break up inside and cause a sore.

If all clothes are ironed thouroughly, and this includes undies, there should be no problem, or dont hang your washing outside, tumble dry it instead.

Vaseline over the sores suffocates them, as said in the article posted by LL. Its just not easy to put vaseline on a puppy!!!

Did not know about this one!

Or hang the clothes outside and then tumble dry on high heat for about 10 min. Horrible creatures.

I never heard about this horrible fly before. How does it look like?
How big is the hatching?
As we are coming in 15 days, I'm going to be very carefully.
Thank you for the info.

papop, I have actually never seen the fly, or if I have, did not know that it was a putsi fly. Never seen the eggs either, think they must be very small, but if they are on your clothes, the warmth from your body makes them hatch out. They then bury themselves into your skin and start eating to stay alive. When very small they dont come out easily, when bigger they do just pop out!!!! The one that came out of my daughters puppy was small, about the size of a pencil lead. I have seen them much bigger though, about the size of the top of ones little finger. Yukk. They are white in colour and look just like a maggot really. Dont worry too much about it though, just be warned and make sure your clothes are all ironed with a hot iron or tumble dried on HIGH for 10 mins or so, or dont hang your clothes outside.
Hope this helps

Nasty little buggers, which I did not know about... So I visited my good friend, Google. Here is what I found:

Cordylobia anthropophaga
(Skin maggot fly,Tumbu fly, putsi fly)

A species of fly isolated from patients with travel history include the human bot fly (Dermatobia hominis), the Tumbu fly (Cordylobia anthropophaga), the Lund's fly (Cordylobia rodhaini) and the New World screw worm fly (Cochliomyia hominivorax).
Both species of Cordylobia are found only within the African continent. The Tumbu fly is a common blowfly of tropical Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. The Lund's Fly is a blowfly rarely involved in human myiasis (Zumpt, 1965); it is found in rainforest areas of tropical Africa, from Senegal to Central Africa and south to Angola and Rhodesia, usually associated with rodents. Females of these two Cordylobia species deposit their eggs below the surface of sandy soil and occasionally on clothing that has been tainted with traces of faeces or urine. Any disturbance of the soil surface is met with an immediate response from the young larvae that wriggle to the surface in order to penetrate the skin of the host. The life cycle of the two Cordylobia species takes 10-12 days to develop to the prepupal stage, when it leaves the host to pupate. Within this time the patient will endure pain and intense itching from the developing lesion.
The New World screw worm (C.hominivorax), is a species of maggot that can burrow into the flesh of humans, wild and domestic animals. Where it was once more widespread in its distribution it is now generally limited to Central and South America (Kettle, 1995). Females of this fly species deposit their eggs on the edges of wounds, sores and healthy mucous membranes. After burrowing into the host’s tissue, the young larvae feed on living tissue for 4-8 days. This causes extreme pain and disfunction to the host from the festering wounds before the maggot matures to the prepupal stage when it leaves the host.

Clinical Presentation & Treatment

Infections with myiatic flies start out as itchy sores that then develop into painful boil-like lesions, which often ooze. Most of these cases of human myiasis are uneventful, but patients should be monitored for additional and subsequent lesions as the development of the maggots is not synchronous or isolated, and their growth phase may be prolonged. Treatment of this condition can be undertaken by forcing the maggots to the skin's surface by cutting off their air supply. An application of Vaseline or similar material will encourage the maggot to move towards the surface exposing more of the maggot's body that can then be extracted. A local anaesthetic and incision to extract the maggot is another common method of treatment.

Source.

I managed to get a couple of very bad pictures of one of the little buggers we got out of my daughters puppy..... its not a very big one, (Maybe cause there is not much flesh yet to eat on one poor little puppy) but does kinda show you what they look like. It is still quite alive when it comes out and wriggles all over the place..... yuk!!!
(I have now killed it....... please dont report me to the powers that be for cruelty!!)


The pencil and lighter are just for size comparison.

Thanks Jazil for those pics. I hope to never see this creature again, because if yes that does mean that I would have had extract it from my skin before!

To just let you all know, the Putsi fly little buggers are now all out of the puppy....(and much bigger ones then the one I took photos of...... camera was not handy at the time to take more photos) ... a word of advice, if you do get them, DONT PANIC...... dont scratch...... let them eat away for a short time, and then slap lots of vaseline on them,..... they suffocate and pop to the top to get out like a cork in a fizzy shaken bottle.... you hardly have to squeeze them out at all then.
They are horrible, but dont panic.......... put a bit of antiseptic cream or gentican violet on the sore afterwards, and thats it.

PTA residents have been infected with this fly's eggs recently.

30 years ago you only found them in the lowveld...... the swines are obviously learning to fly further

Pretoria, nogal. Thats just around the corner.
They really look juk