Tag: maggot
White Worm Crawling on Shoulder is a Caterpillar or Maggot
“I just saw this worm crawling on my shoulder”, writes Mackie about the white organism pictured below. “Do you know what kind of worm this is and where it possibly came from?” She does not provide more context than this, and we have to say that this worm really could be anything. Its shape, coloration, and overall appearance is so generic that it could be any number of different creatures. Our best bet is that it is a caterpillar or a maggot, but it could very well be a beetle larva too, or something else entirely. Whatever it is, we think it probably ended up on Mackie’s shoulder when she was outside: it likely fell out of a tree and landed on her.
Bristly Black Worm-like Critter Found in Toilet is a Black Soldier Fly Larva
“I’ve found this worm/larva a few times recently in one of my toilets”, states our reader from South Carolina in his submission regarding the black, segmented worm-like critter pictured below. “At first I thought it was a leaf that might have fallen off my dog’s face, but when I saw it the second/third time I noticed it was moving. It’s about 3/4-1” long, about 1/4 wide and 1/4” high. It’s dark brown/black, segmented, has hairs (legs?) at the lower side or underside, and moves like a caterpillar. The narrow tapered end seems to be the head as that’s the direction it crawls. No one has used the toilet prior to finding them. YES, my dogs do drink from the toilet. I’m concerned now that I see it’s alive, that it may be coming from my dog as he drinks? It does look similar to a few things I’ve seen on your site, but finding them in the toilet is throwing me. I’m located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and have seen them four times in the past two weeks. Thanks for any guidance you can offer.”
Critters in Compost Juice are Rat-tailed Maggots
A man from coastal British Columbia, Canada recently sent in this image of a worm-like creature he found in a bucket of compost juice he was brewing for gardening purposes in late June. The worms appear to be a semi-transparent white in color, with pink down the middle which is enclosed in brighter white rings. The creatures also have incredibly long tails, one of them having a tail that is most likely twice the length of its body.
Tiny White Maggots in Bathroom
We received a question from a reader recently about a small maggot, or something like a maggot, that he found in his bathroom. The reader’s email to us does a decent job covering his situation, so we’ll quote it in full (with the addition of several articles, definite and indefinite): “This tiny white maggoty looking worm with light pinkish head and tail was on the edge of my bathroom sink this morning. My shitzu sleeps with me. Maybe it crawled on me in the night and fell off me at the sink? He goes potty in a woodsy area. I know there are chiggers he brings in. I’m in west central Missouri. Just north of Kansas City and it’s the end of June. Can you identify? Thank you.”
Short White Maggots Inside Crickets
We received an interesting question from a reader the other day via the All About Worms Facebook page about “some sort of short white maggot” crawling out of the abdomen of a cricket. The reader feeds the crickets to his chameleon, and recently gnats have been found in the “chameleon’s habitat.” The reader speculated there might be a connection between the gnats and the short white maggots – indeed, he thought the maggots might be the gnats themselves – and asked us to weigh in on the matter. What type of short white maggot could be inside a cricket?
Worms in an Ice Machine
A little while ago, a reader wrote to us about worms in an ice machine, by which he meant the type of machine you might find in a break room at an office or in a restaurant kitchen. The reader didn’t see the worms in the ice machine himself, but merely heard a report of worms being there, and so he was wondering if it is even possible to find a worm in an ice machine. If it is possible, he further wondered, how did the worms get into the ice machine? The reader didn’t express interest in what type of worm might be in the machine (if it even is a worm – it might be a maggot, as we shall see), but we’ll have to speculate on this matter in the course of answering our reader’s precise questions.
Group of Worms or Maggots
A little while ago, a reader wrote to us about a strange phenomenon he had witnessed: he found a group of worms, or what appears to be a group of worms (they may not actually be worms), on his driveway. He sent us a picture of his find, which seems to show a section of the of group worms; they are all oriented in the same direction, almost as if they were collectively forming the shape of a huge worm. However, the reader described what he found as a “cluster of worms,” so perhaps the worms are less well organized than it appears. It’s a striking find, so naturally our reader is curious what he found, and if they present a danger to his kids. What is this group of worms, if they are worms, and are they dangerous?
Little, White Worms in the Kitchen
A reader recently found little, white worms in his kitchen. The reader left “dirty washing” (perhaps something like dirty plates or dirty rags) on the kitchen floor over night, and in the morning there were lots of little, white worms on the kitchen floor, directly underneath the “washing.” We receive a lot of questions about little, white worms, and ironically these questions are rarely about little, white worms at all. Rather, they tend to be about maggots, which are indeed little and white, but they are not worms (for reasons we’ll explain in a moment). We think the white “worms” our reader found are maggots, but we’ll also throw out a few more possibilities for our reader to investigate.
Maggots in Your House
We were recently sent a question about small white worms, which a reader has been finding around his house. Of course, the reader wanted to know what these small, white worms are. He also sent us a picture, helping us better identify the worm in question. In this particular instance, we are fairly sure our reader didn’t find a worm at all, but rather a maggot. More precisely, he found maggots, as there are two small creatures in the picture we were sent. Why do we think he found maggots?
Small Worms in the Shower
A little while back, we received a question from a reader about small worms (or larvae) he found in his shower. Actually, the word “small” doesn’t adequately capture the size of the worm (or, again, larva) our reader found because they are said to be .01 of an inch in size, which is about the size of a speck of dust. With all due respect to our reader, we think a measurement miscalculation was probably made because .01 of an inch seems impossibly small for any sort of worm or larva, and this is true regardless of whether he was referring to the length or width of the creature he found. In assuming that a mistake was made, however, we must guess at the size of the worm, further complicating our idea of the creature with which our reader is dealing.
Groups of Maggots
We write about maggots a lot. We’re not entirely sure why, but many a reader question centers on the ubiquitous (or so you would think) maggot. We’ve written about maggots on the bathroom floor – twice – and we’ve also touched on maggots found in bone marrow and maggots and dogs. What’s more, all of these maggot-related articles were written recently, within the last half year or so. Clearly, there is no shortage of reader queries about maggots.
Worms in Bone Marrow? Probably Maggots
A reader wrote to us about a fascinating discovery he recently made: when he split open a beef marrow bone – the type you might get from a butcher, which is where our reader got his bone – for his dogs to get at the marrow, he discovered that the bone was filled with hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of tiny worms, or what appeared to be worms. The worms were inside the bone, burrowed into the bone marrow. Strangely, it appeared that the bone was completely sealed; in other words, it looked as though there was no way for anything to get into the bone. So, how on earth did an abundance of small worm-like creatures make there way into a bone, and what are these creatures anyway?
Small White Critters Found in the Bathroom: Worms or Maggots?
A reader found some very small white worms in his bathtub and would like to know what they are. While there are a couple of different possibilities, small, white, wormlike creatures found in the bathroom or kitchen are most often maggots (another possibility is that they are planarians, a type of flatworm, but these worms are usually aquatic so this seems unlikely unless the reader’s bathtub was full when he sent us his question).
Maggots and Dogs
A reader wrote to us with a question regarding whether maggots can survive after eating the flesh of a dead poisoned dog. Maggots, those household pests that often appear in food after it has decayed or rotted, are actually the larval form of the common housefly. Before maggots mature into their adult, airborne form they survive by feeding on decayed flesh. For this reason, maggots are often found in garbage disposals, sinks, rotten food, and among livestock. A dead dog would present an irresistible target for your average maggot.
Small White Worms With a Black Dot on the End, a.k.a Maggots
A reader recently asked about a tiny white worm with a black dot on the end. This reader indicated that they found the worm in an ice machine. Given these two facts, the answer is that this “worm” is most likely a maggot, which is the larva of a fly.
Can Red Worms and Flies Eat a Large Animal?
Red worms are epigeic or detritivorous earthworms. They do not eat animal or human flesh. Red worms are vegetarians, so they eat vegetables and other organic matter. There are more than 120,000 species of flies around the world and many of the most common flies, such as the fruit fly, eat decaying fruits and vegetables as well.
How Maggots Affect the Human Body
Although some maggots appear only during a clearly defined stage of animal decomposition, the large voracious maggots of many blow flies feed on any animal matter, including living tissues.
Maggots
If you’ve ever opened up your garbage can and spotted hundreds of “tiny white worms” writhing about, chances are they were not worms. Those nasty little creatures are called maggots.