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What happens to maggots if you leave them alone? How do they survive? Curiosity strikes and you realize, you hardly know anything about your uninvited guests. Find out the answers in this article.
So, how long do maggots live? Maggots live for five to eight days then turn into pupa that will transform into adult flies. Without food or source of water, they can last for two to three days.
Maggots only live as maggots for a short period of time. Sometimes, their development could depend on the temperature.
Development can be delayed under cold weather and there is a lower chance of survival if a maggot thrives under cold temperatures.
The goal of maggots is to eat as much as they can, in order to store enough energy for pupation.
The pupation stage is the part where they cover themselves and remain still as their body slowly undergoes a transformation to turn into adult flies.
Most species of maggots only have to stay as maggots for five to eight days. They have to stay up to eight days if they weren’t able to eat enough.
As adult flies, most species live up to 28 to 30 days. There are a few ones that could live longer than the average fly, but they mostly only live for a month.
However, they easily produce hundreds of eggs that hatches into maggots 24 hours right after laying them.
What do maggots eat to live
Maggots often live and reach their pupation stage due to the fact that they have a wide variety of food choices. They are not picky eaters, at least, they are not intelligent enough to nitpick.
- Maggots eat:
- Human food, unattended food, spoiled food
- Rotten meat, vegetables and fruits
- Feces or animal waste
- Corpses or decaying carcasses of other dead animals
- Garbage, liquid substances, plants
- Other maggots (cannibalism)
- Human flesh (during infestations)
Maggots need to eat as much as they can in order to store energy before they become a pupa and later transform into an adult fly. These maggots are usually born on top of those rotten products so they don’t have to go on their own to find food.
Rotten meat, vegetables and fruits will give them more energy and it can usually feed hundreds of maggots for a couple of days because it naturally lasts that long unlike other products.
These insects are actually believed to not have the intelligence that can allow them to perceive what is filthy or not filthy and they just eat whatever they can in order to survive.
Maggots do not choose what they eat; they eat what is in front of them even if it is waste.
Flies try to find food as quick as they can and if they happen to stumble upon a decaying body of an animal even if it is small, they will take the opportunity and lay their eggs on it.
The maggots will then be born within the corpse or carcass and will immediately start feeding off of it. Corpses or carcasses still contain minerals that maggots can benefit form that is why they don’t just eat “anything” they eat what gives them energy.
Despite the lack of intelligence, maggots won’t eat plastic because it is not included among their natural source, and so, they do not perceive it as food.
Maggot Cannibalism
A lot of insects also have “cannibalistic tendencies” and maggots are one of them. According to a few observations, these maggots are revealed to consume their fellow maggots when there is nothing else that they can eat.
But the bizarre part is that there are times when they already have food in front of them but still attacks the other maggots just for food consumption as well.
It could be due to their lack of intelligence and that they do not perceive their fellow maggots as their own kind and only see them as potential food sources.
However, this isn’t the case once they grow into adult flies. Most species of flies have not shown cannibalistic tendencies, showing that they are only cannibals when young or during their larvae stage (maggots).
Perhaps, maggots just eat whatever they can which is why they are also considered as pests.
Although their purpose allows the environment to stay clean because they get rid of the “filth” and other types of “dirt”
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Who are the predators of maggots
Maggots are unable to live out the rest of their life cycle only if they encounter predators. In the wild, they have plenty of natural enemies that prey on them.
Their natural enemies only kill them for food and their unnatural enemies are us, when we kill them to get rid of them.
Here are a few predators of maggots.
- Maggot Predators
- Fire Ants
- Wasps
- Spiders
- Lacewing Larvae
- Some bird species including chickens
- Lizards such as iguanas, geckos
- Flytrap plant
- Some species of fish
- Fellow maggots
- Other insects
What is a maggot’s life purpose
Maggots eat human tissues when they are inside our bodies and knowing this fact, medical science discovered another purpose for maggots.
Knowing that they eat anything, you would think of maggots as pests. For households, that is true and for humans and other animals, they bring a number of health risks making them unwanted creatures.
However, that is not how nature works – as every animal in nature serves a purpose and maggots contribute a lot to the environment by quickly breaking down dead and dirty things.
As dirty as maggots are, they become the “absorber” of those filthy things. They help clean up the environment and they become feed for other animals.
Chickens may sometimes eat maggots and other worms and maggots can also be used as fish food or fish bait by fishermen.
They also serve another purpose – to aid in medical therapy as wound cleaners.
Maggot Therapy
When maggots are used for medicine, they are using disinfected, clean maggots and leave them on top of the wounds to clean it up. This is how they used maggot infestation for medical advantages.
Medical grade maggots are germ-free or disinfected larvae of therapeutic fly species, they are the maggots used to treat and manage wounds through a procedure called “maggot therapy”.
They are applied to the wound for 2 or 3 days with special dressings to keep the maggots in one place.
However, not everyone is open to this type of therapy but that still contributes to the knowledge of “what maggots eat” and what their purpose are.
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What is the life cycle of maggots
There are only “three” stages from the life cycle of flies or maggots. The beginning of maggots mark the beginning of their transformation into adult flies.
- Larvae stage
- Staying as a larvae
- Preparing for pupation
- Pupation stage
- Slow transformation
- Adult fly stage
- Repeat the cycle
1. Larvae stage
Before entering the pupation stage, maggots actually undergo through multiple molting periods which is necessary to attain new forms before taking on a “new level” which is becoming a pupa.
How long maggots stay as larvae
Maggots stay in their larvae stage for as long as five to ten days.
When the maggot is born, their first priority is eating in order to store as much energy as possible to get ready for pupation, the stage where they transform into adult flies from pupa.
Normally, maggots need to eat for three to five days but it can be longer than that if they are having difficulty finding food. It happens when they are born in a place where the food is not enough for hundreds of maggots.
Where maggots go to enter pupation
Once the maggot has already stored enough energy to enter the pupation stage, they will now look for a dark, secluded place that can secure their safety. Usually, a maggot pupa can be found underneath garbage bins or dark unattended corners.
2. Pupation stage
After finding a safe place away from predators, the maggot will enter and begin the pupation stage after four days. They will then begin their transformation slowly and the process usually takes up to ten days.
As soon as the pupation stage ends, the maggots turned larvae turned pupa can now become adult flies.
3. Adult fly
When the pupation stage ends, the once maggot is now an adult fly that is also ready to lay its own eggs within two days. This will allow their kind to repeat the same process over and over again, keeping their kind going as the world continues to revolve.
Gestation period
Now that the maggots have become adult flies, they are not able to lay their own eggs. A fly stays pregnant for only 24 hours and the egg also hatches after another 24 hours which makes it easy for flies to keep their numbers up.
Repeating the same process, the adult fly will lay its egg on places where the maggots can easily feed off. Usually, they prefer to lay the eggs on decaying corpses because it provides enough food for hundreds of maggots and lasts for days.
Related Questions
How long does it take for a maggot to turn into a fly?
A maggot takes 15 to 18 days before they fully transform into a fly. They stay as larvae (worm / maggots) for five to eight days and enter pupation stage for a maximum of ten days. At the end of the pupation stage, they turn into adult flies.
Do maggots multiply?
No, maggots do not multiply on its own. They are also not like species that can “multiply” if you cut them or slice them into pieces. They are young versions of flies, incapable of mating and reproducing with fellow young maggots.