Mortified neighbour - maggots in lounge!

[Smowball]

My neighbour has just knocked on my do and poured boiling water on them, or, saying with horror that she thinks she has found maggots in her lounge. Have gone and looked, she had swept them up with a dustpan and brush and put them in a bowl,but they are/were definitely maggots.Dont see what else they can be, bearing in mind the last time I saw a maggot was when my dad used to buy them to go fishing!

She cant understand where they have come from. Says there is no way they were there yesterday as she would have seen them easily.e as a wooden floor so they were't hidden in carpet or anything. They were just scattered about on the floor. have counted and there are over 20 of them! Any idea where on earth they would have appeared from??

[Smowball]

Lol, not sure why the first few sentences are jumbled up! Meant to say my neighbour knocked on my door, and she has poured boiling water over the maggots.

[factor-fiction]

They come from flies that lay eggs.

[woofgang]

a child who is a joker?

[JonnyBoy12]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. Maggots are my most hated things in the whole world. Could you just bring in some chickens and get them to eat all the maggot for lunch? They are supposed to love them.

[Robinia]

Could a bird have fallen down the chimney and died behind a fire?...they often go maggoty

[Smowball]

no, she has no children.

Flies are always about though, why doesnt every house have maggots??

[factor-fiction]

...or a dead mouse somewhere?

[woofgang]

there needs to be a protein source for the flies to lay their eggs in for the maggots to grow...growth IIRC takes a week to 10 days and the maggots hatch small and grow. Sudden appearance in the middle of nowhere is odd. Hs she a cat or dog who could have brought in magotty carrion, eaten the carrion and left the maggots?

[Smowball]

dead mouse................ guess that may be possible.... will ask her to have a thorough search. very odd though.

[L00fah100]

Did she have meat in her bin for a long time, or tell her to check the bottom of her bin as there could be gunge at the bottom harbouring maggots who've clung to the bottom of the binbag as she was taking it out.

Another theory is has she recently purchased any foreign exotic foods? if she has tell her to check the packs containers and they could've came from there.

[Smowball]

erm, she does have a dog. Bin - yes she would have to walk through the lounge get to the bin outside with a full bin liner from kitchen, so yes thats another theory.

Didnt realise it took 10 days to get from egg to maggot - they were about 5-6 millimetres long

[crisper]

Hi Smowball.... I have had carpet moths here... pesky little blighters... they hatch the grubs into the carpet... the eat the carpet.. and hatch out of a little cocoon.. looks something like a maggot-cum - piece of rice...could it be that you and your neighbour are looking at?.. we had loads of the little cocoons here! Mrs C x

[Smowball]

Never heard of carpet moths! I dont know, but she said the things she found were wriggling. (eww)

[FredPuli43]

There is a moth that lays eggs in rice and other dry cereals. I had an equally surprising experience when the 'maggots' appeared in the kitchen, en masse, having hatched all at once. The source was a long forgotten bag of rice. This might explain your neighbour's problem. Otherwise, it's a bit of a mystery.

[andrew1707]

Could they be small caterpillars?

We had a "Maggot Scare" a couple of years ago when a bed spread appeared to be full of them. Turned out they were caterpillars and that the bed-spread had been on the outside washing line a number of days before.

Could your neighbour have been airing a rug?

[Smowball]

No, Im pretty sure they were maggots. She does have a rug in lounge on one side so maybe from there?? Its very odd...

[Nosha123]

I think maggots head for rugs and things to turn into flies! We had a problem with our kitchen bin and they all headed for a rug! Filthy things! Freak me out!

[firewatch]

i get them in my food bin very very regularly. In the house its normally something the dog, yes a dog, has decided to bring in from the garden! we have a fruit fly issue here, the fruit is rotting even before it rippens, then they fly through my window/

[boxtops]

I didn't have maggots but I had their successor, a plague of bluebottles once - I found the culprit was a dead mouse the cats had brought in and abandoned in a little crack behind the fridge. When I pulled out the fridge, there was a shell of a mouse - no skin or bones, just the fur in mouse-shape. I bet it's something like that.

[Smowball]

Am just cringing thinking about them lol.