A 74-year-old California man’s insect bite led to something much more horrifying than an annoying itch: a parasitic worm infestation of his eyelid. Doctors at the University of California Los Angeles and others detailed the upsetting turn of events in a recent case report. To make things weirder, the man contracted a species of parasite that’s never been documented in the United States before. Fortunately, upon its discovery, the worm was safely removed, and the man recovered with no issues. “Our findings confirm the necessity of both molecular and histological studies to identify nematode infections,” the authors wrote in their report, published in the July issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. An old-world invader According to the report, the man was bitten by an unknown insect on his lower left eyelid. At first, he experienced some fleeting pain, swelling, and fluid seeping from the bite. Six weeks later, however, his dermatologist noticed a firm but nontender eight millimeter-long “nodule” in the same spot. The man then visited an ophthalmologist and was given an MRI, which revealed some sort of cyst on the eyelid. Doctors initially suspected this cyst was a chalazion, an inflamed but benign lump on eyelids caused by a blocked oil gland.