• Question: how long do magets live and how do thay help you

    Asked by exloxr3m1x to Kat on 11 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Katherine Davies

      Katherine Davies answered on 11 Mar 2011:

      Hi Exloxr3m1x

      Maggot growth is entirely dependent on temperature. They grow faster in the summer, as they have more heat available to grow. They stop growing around 1oC, and over heat at about 35oC, but it depends on species (type of fly).

      At 22oC (room temperature), eggs hatch after about 1 day, and maggots spend 7 days feeding, growing and shedding their skin (three times), before they are full and huge! they then wander away from their food and enter the metamorphosis stage, where they transform into a fly over 11 days.

      They can help us at crime scenes, because if we know how old the eldest maggots are, we can estimate how long the body has been at the scene. This can help pin down suspects. We can also tell (sometimes) if the person has died from a drug overdose, as we can get this information from inside the maggots stomach (or crop) because they have fed on the human tissue.

      Kat

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