And if the “worms in the eye” story was not bad enough….

A sea snail was found living in a boy’s skin after a trip to the beach

Here’s one to add to your list of things to be worried about at the beach: sea snails getting into your cuts.

An 11-year-old boy had a four-millimetre sea snail removed from his arm a week after he fell and scraped his elbow in a tide pool at a California beach.

Afterwards, his parents tried to keep the wound clean, but noticed a “blister” that wasn’t going away. On the contrary, it was growing in size, so they took him to the doctor.

The first thing doctors usually do to treat an abscess is to lance and drain it, so that is what Khait did. But inside, under all the pus, the doctor found a hard object, about 4 millimetres in diameter.

It was a sea snail, later identified as a chequered periwinkle (Littorina scutulata) - and it was apparently still alive.