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Can a gnat fly up your nose and lay eggs in your sinuses?

Question #106191. Asked by zbeckabee.
Last updated May 14 2021.

avatar
star_gazer star
Answer has 13 votes
Currently Best Answer
star_gazer star
23 year member
5236 replies avatar

Answer has 13 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
They are certainly small enough to do this, but they prefer to lay their eggs on the soil of house plants. So the answer to your question is "possible, but not likely".

link http://pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/Flies/Gnats.htm

Response last updated by Terry on Aug 24 2016.
Jun 09 2009, 5:13 PM
queproblema
Answer has 4 votes
queproblema
19 year member
2119 replies

Answer has 4 votes.
If you're a sheep. Or a deer. (Or probably any of the ruminants. Just guessing.)

Well, sorta.

"Flies deposit as many as 500 larvae in the nostrils of sheep. The larvae then move up the nasal passages to the nasal and frontal sinuses."

Those are bot flies.
link http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/notes/sheep_bot_flies.html
link http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/155571/deer-nose-bot-fly

I have personal experience with the human bot fly, but the larva just got under my skin, not up my nose!
link http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/botfly.html

I've heard the bird of paradise can fly up your nose...

Jun 09 2009, 6:13 PM
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Datsmeharse
Answer has 3 votes
Datsmeharse
16 year member
859 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
Using St Anselm's Proslogion (for Gnats, rather than God):

1. One can imagine a gnat flying up one's nose and laying eggs.

2. We know that gnats in reality are greater than gnats in the mind alone.

3. If a gnat able to fly up our nose and lay eggs we imagine exists only in our mind, then it is not a "gnat which none greater can be conceived", ie. a gnat that you're darn tootin' can fly up our nose and lay eggs.

4. A gnat which none greater can be conceived must also exist in reality.

5. Failure to fly up our nose in reality would be failure to being a gnat which none greater can be conceived.

6. Thus a gnat which none greater can be conceived must exist, and we call this being A Bloody Nuisance.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proslogion

Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 14 2021.
Jun 09 2009, 7:17 PM
queproblema
Answer has 2 votes
queproblema
19 year member
2119 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
And I thought Annoy the Editor Day was June 8th?

Or maybe this is Annoy the Wikipedia Editor Day.

:D

Jun 09 2009, 8:41 PM
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zbeckabee star
Answer has 3 votes
zbeckabee star
Moderator
19 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
I told him to just take the whole month to celebrate...and get it out of his system.

Jun 09 2009, 8:56 PM
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Baloo55th star
Answer has 3 votes
Baloo55th star
22 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
Surely the gnat should be lesser rather than greater? A very great gnat would not be able to fly up one's nose - unless the nose in question was the greatest nose conceivable... But what if the gnat has sufficient velocity to fly past the sinuses and intrude into the cranium? Surely it would then be both in reality and in the mind?

Jun 10 2009, 1:18 PM
queproblema
Answer has 4 votes
queproblema
19 year member
2119 replies

Answer has 4 votes.
Whoops! June 10th.
(Must have a gnat up my nose.)

Jun 10 2009, 2:31 PM
avatar
Datsmeharse
Answer has 2 votes
Datsmeharse
16 year member
859 replies avatar

Answer has 2 votes.
Actually the 1st Annual Annoy the Editor Day was June 8th, but it is very fitting that it is actually celebrated in subsequent days and perhaps in months, much like how the Grammys are structured.

Jun 10 2009, 7:51 PM
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