Ask A Scientist© Zoology Archive

name         Twyla D.
status       student
age          18

Question -   When  you die and begin to rot, maggots appear and aid in
the process. Where do they come from? Do they form from within you? If
not, how would you get them if you died in a room where there were no
bugs? Do they form from bacteria?
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Maggots are fly larvae and an adult fly must lay the eggs in the body.
J. Elliott
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A little macabre, but maggots are the larva stage of flies. When you die
and begin to rot (if you do) maggots are not a foregone result.

Vince Calder
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Inless we believe in spontaneous generation which was disproved hundreds of
years ago by Spallanzani...the maggots come from flies laying eggs on the
corpse.

Peter Faletra Ph.D.
Office of Science
Department of Energy
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Lovely topic!

Maggots are the larvae of flies.  They will only appear in an object if a
fly is able to lay its eggs there.

Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois
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Maggot is a general term for the larval form of an insect.  They appear 2-5
days after an adult insect lays its eggs.  In the case of a deceased animal,
flies are usually the source of maggots.  The flies lay their eggs after
being drawn to the smell of rotting flesh.  The eggs hatch into maggots and
they get their nutrients from eating the body.  This also aids in
decomposition.  Actually there is a field of forensics called forensic
entymology or solving crimes by observing the insects/larva on a body.  Each
insect has a specific life cycle and the time it takes for the larva to hatch
can be diagnostic.

vanhoeck
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