Colonoscop-BEE! Doctors reveal all the bizarre insects found in patients’ COLONS during routine procedures – including cockroaches, ladybugs, ants and moths…
A woman who had a cockroach infestation at home was found to have one of the insects in her colon during a colonoscopy
A story about a Missouri man who had a fly buzz in his colon during a routine screening for colon cancer left doctors baffled as to how the fly got there.
Although thousands of people were disgusted online, there have been several cases over the years of insects crawling into the colon.
Cockroaches, flies and moths are just some of the insects that settle in patients’ colons, usually after they accidentally eat them.
The bugs were discovered during colonoscopies – where a camera is inserted into a patient’s rectum to look for changes in the colon.
During a 52-year-old woman’s colon cancer screening in 2010, doctors found a cockroach in her colon.
The insect was removed and sent to the laboratory for identification, where it turned out to be a German cockroach, a common household pest.
The woman had a cockroach infestation in her home and doctors thought she may have accidentally eaten the bug after it got into her food.
The cockroach’s hard exterior is “likely to withstand the action of the human digestive system,” said doctors at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Insects are most likely introduced into the intestines by accidentally being eaten in contaminated food.
Another cockroach was found in a woman’s colon with a green substance on its legs. Doctors believe the insect was in green Jell-O that the woman ate before the procedure
The woman had a history of schizophrenia but did not remember accidentally eating the cockroach
In 2010, another cockroach was found in the colon of a 51-year-old woman.
The insect was less than an inch long and had a watery green substance on its legs. Doctors tried to carefully remove the insect, but it disintegrated.
The woman had a history of schizophrenia but had no memory of accidentally eating the cockroach and denied suffering from pica – a mental condition in which a person compulsively swallows non-food items.
Doctors said the most plausible explanation was that the patient had accidentally swallowed the bug while eating green lime Jell-O, which she had been given shortly before the procedure.
Doctors found a fully intact ladybug in the colon of a Missouri man during a regular colonoscopy
During a screening colonoscopy of a 59-year-old man from Columbia, Missouri, a ladybug was found in the colon.
Although insect eating is rare, it can occur during sleep, doctors at the University of Missouri said, although they were unsure how the insect got into the man.
The evening before the colonoscopy, the man had to drink a liter of polyethylene glycol – a laxative used to empty the intestines before the procedure.
An ant was found in the colon of a 66-year-old man
This may have helped the beetle escape digestive enzymes in the stomach and upper small intestine, doctors said.
In 2009, a 66-year-old man from Portland, Oregon, was found to have an intact, dead ant in his colon.
The man told doctors that he had eaten several plates of potato salad and chicken wings during a family picnic at a riverside park two days before the colonoscopy.
“Presumably these served as the inanimate vector for the unfortunate ant,” doctors at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center said.
In 2013, an intact moth was discovered in the colon of a 55-year-old man in Tampa, Florida – the first time a moth has been found in the gastrointestinal tract.
The moth appears white in the photo because the stomach acid has removed the scales, where most pigmentation is found.
An intact moth was discovered in the colon of a 55-year-old man in Tampa, Florida
It was 6 mm long and had a wingspan of 12 mm.
“Although these intakes have little consequence for the patient, they are quite rare and may even be surprising to the endoscopist,” doctors said.
A man in Missouri has left doctors scratching their heads after finding a live fly deep in his intestines.
The 63-year-old patient had come this year for a routine screening for colon cancer, during which they placed a camera in the intestines, also known as a colonoscopy.
The procedure went normally until doctors reached the transverse colon – the area at the top of the large intestine – where they found a completely intact fly.
The above image, which the patient gave permission to share, shows the fly as it was found in his intestines. It didn’t move when poked
Doctors in Missouri said the discovery was a “mystery.” It is possible for insect larvae to infect the intestines, as previous cases have shown
Doctors said it was a ‘mystery’ as to how the insect got there, but it could be due to contaminated lettuce the man ate the day before his appointment.
The patient was questioned after the discovery, but admitted that he had no idea how the insect had gotten into his body. He felt no symptoms.
He told the doctors that the day before his colonoscopy he had drank only clear liquids, as needed to clear the intestinal tract.
The night before his 24-hour fast, he had eaten pizza and lettuce, but he said he didn’t remember there being a fly in his food.
In rare cases, flies have laid eggs in fruits and vegetables that then survived the stomach acids and hatched in the intestines.
The doctors wrote about the case, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology: ‘This case represents a very rare colonoscopic finding.
“(It’s a) mystery as to how the intact fly found its way into the transverse colon.”
Flies and their larvae can infect the human intestine in a condition medically called intestinal myiasis.
This happens when a person consumes food containing fly eggs and larvae.
In rare cases, these can survive the acid in the stomach and then infect the intestines, grow and possibly mutate into adult flies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says some infected patients have no symptoms, but others have abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea.