Insect Physicians - Creepy Crawly Medicine Quiz

Answer: All of these

In the 21st century, the medical profession is again turning to maggots when conventional therapies fail. Blue and green bottle flies or "blowflies" are bred and fed in sterile conditions and then shipped to hospitals. After being placed over a septic wound, the larvae are flushed after two or three days and replaced with fresh maggots.

Despite the "grossness" of the treatment, doctors are reporting pleasing results in very difficult cases.

Answer: India

Carpenter and Army ants were often used, as these larger breeds of ant have soldiers with very large pincers. These ants were held so that they closed their mandibles over the edges of a wound. When the pincers were clamped tight, the thorax and abdomen would be pinched off leaving behind the head with the wound closed at that point.

The practice started in India from at least 3000BC and has spread geographically since then.

Answer: Hippocrates

Hippocrates - the father of modern medicine - described the use of Cantharis or Spanish Fly in the treatment of dropsy or oedema. The active ingredient Cantharidin is found in the blood of the insects. He also recommended it for inducing abortion.

Answer: Earwigs

It is quite obvious that Elizabethan doctors were a creative group. It is difficult to imagine this ghastly concoction having any other effect than to perhaps act on wax built up in the outer ear canal.

Answer: All of these

Many of these cures are claimed to be highly efficacious - even today. The Elizabethans also used bedbugs in the treatment of malaria. Ironically there is now a slightly different connection with bedbugs and malaria. In tropical areas, treatment for bedbugs includes the use of insecticides in bedding and mosquito netting.

As a result bedbugs are eradicated and malaria bearing mosquitoes are reduced markedly in numbers as well.

Answer: Louis Armstrong

Through the ages, cockroaches have been thought to cure strokes, tetanus and even indigestion. The insects were often placed in a jar beside the bed of measles sufferers. It was claimed that when the cockroaches died, the illness would be transferred from the sick child to the insects.
In Europe powdered cockroaches are still sold as a cure for pleurisy and pericarditis.

Answer: All of these

Apiarists assert bee stings keep the limbs supple. While the evidence is still mainly anecdotal, this population does seem to have slightly less incidence of these inflammatory diseases.
Doctors certainly use bee and wasp venom to desensitise people who are allergic to the bite of these insects.

Answer: Boils

Boils were treated with a poultice of ground grasshopper legs and many people still insist that if you have a grasshopper bite a wart, the brown substance it leaves behind will cause the offending growth to disappear.
There are also claims that the grasshopper was used to treat fits in the nineteenth century in New York.

Answer: They secrete an acid which keeps the wound clean.

The ants are essentially used to provide a disinfectant to treat the wound. As they are dropped into the affected area, an alarm reaction is set off among the insects. As a result they secrete an acid which acts as a painful but effective antiseptic.

Answer: All of these

While honey's thick consistency and moistness provide protection and a healing environment, the sugars draw dirt and moisture from the wound site. Bacteria growth is also inhibited by the acidity present. The bees' enzyme in the honey breaks down into hydrogen peroxide which is a very effective disinfectant. Add the properties of an anti-inflammatory and pain killer and honey is indeed a valuable remedy.

Special honeys are required to be of any use. The supermarket product has been sterilised and is ineffective.