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Tiny detail in holiday snap hinted at ‘excruciating’ ordeal ahead

Queenslander Natalie Carroll was excited to celebrate her birthday when she touched down for a holiday in Bali, Indonesia last week.

Instead, her trip was derailed by an insect the size of a fingernail that left her leg covered in "excruciating" blisters and welts.

WARNING: This article contains images some readers may find graphic.

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Natalie was in Bali for her birthday when she was stung by a rove beetle.

The 24-year-old was asleep in her open-air villa when what she believed was a harmless beetle landed on her leg. Not thinking, she brushed it away.

The very next morning she spotted a red mark blooming on her thigh.

"I started to do some Googling and did come across the Tomcat [beetle] at that point," she told 9news.com.au, but didn't realise it was the culprit.

The mark on her leg worsened in the hours that followed, blooming into angry welts that felt almost like burns.

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