New killer insect causes lots of tiny holes in a hand?

A series of warnings have been circulating the Internet warning of a “new killer insect” from India that – when touched – results in horrific injuries, even death.

A number of similar versions of this warning have circulated online, most of which claim to depict both a photograph of the alleged killer insect as well as seemingly graphic photos of the injuries it apparently causes. Such injuries show either hands or arms inflicted with lots of tiny holes. The image of the insect most commonly shows an insect with a large number of small tube-like structures on its back.

All the warnings we have seen assert the insect was first spotted in India and is highly dangerous, and implore readers to avoid contact at all costs.

TL:DR – The warnings are all hoaxes. There are no such killer insects as described by the warnings. All the images show perfectly harmless creatures and the “graphic injury” photos we have seen were all taken from special effects tutorials taken elsewhere from the Internet.

The below warning first began spreading back in 2015 –

New Killer Insect (See Photo)
If you ever see this Insect, please don’t try to kill it with your bare hands or touch it, this insect spreads virus to the place of bodily contact and circulates the entire human system in minutes, it was first sighted in India.
Be kind enough to share this information with friends and families, do remember to educate the children never to kill an insect with bare hands or allow its secretion to touch their body.
This is an SOS Alert!!!!

For those who have been alarmed or perturbed by the warning, you needn’t be, since it is completely false. In fact the entire rumour seems to be another prank aimed at people who suffer from the scientifically unofficial “pathological fear of holes” known as trypophobia. Many of our regular readers may be familiar with a previous aged hoax purporting to tell the story of breast larvae that manifested itself in a similar way to this “killer insect” tale. In both cases the supposed inflicted “injuries” appear very similar.

Perhaps most comforting is the fact that the injured hand is not real. In fact it is a still taken from a video clip giving a special effects tutorial teaching viewers how to create a trypophobia sufferer’s worst nightmare.

As for the bug, it’s the giant waterbug. Not a pleasant looking bug by any means, but certainly not capable of the injuries described in the warning. The structures in the back of the bug are eggs that are carried on the back of the male.

However similar rumors continued to circulate the Internet, many claiming the killer insect was spreading the entirely fictitious “India Contra Virus” and was attached to the following worrying images –

Again it’s a hoax. Again the photo shows an entirely harmless (albeit not particularly aesthetic) giant water bug. Again, the “injuries” have just been taken from a video about special effects.

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A myriad of other similar hoaxes with similar claims and wording also occasionally spring up online, all accompanies by special effects designed to specificalyl irk sufferers of trypophobia. To date, none of them have been accurate.

There is no “killer insect” on the loose that can cause the injuries described in the attached images, and there is no bug that can spread such a virus that engulfs the entire human body within minutes. Perhaps a tiny piece of good advice in the warning is to teach children not to pick up unknown bugs with their bare hands since a small number of creatures can have self-defence mechanisms that can cause unpleasant and in rare cases even harmful effects on humans, especially children.

But that is certainly no excuse to spread this nonsense warning, which is false.