Maggot

“ Fly, maggot, and grub of the Ox breeze-fly, with a microscopic view of the maggot.
It is commonly upon young cattle, such, namely, as are two or three years old, that the greatest number of bumps is found; it being rare to observe them upon very old animals. The fly seems to be well aware that such skins will not oppose too much resistance, and seems to know, also, that tender flesh is the most proper for supplying good nourishment to its progeny. ”

“ Long may they live, and love, and propagate, Till the whole land be peopled with Tom Thumbs! [1] So, when the Cheshire cheese a maggot breeds, Another and another still succeeds: By thousands and ten thousands they increase, Till one continued maggot fills the rotten cheese. ”

“ The larva is a footless maggot, which lives in the pulp of the apple and tunnels it with winding channels, making here and there discolored excavations about the size of a pea. When ready to transform, the maggot leaves the apple, falls to the ground, and beneath the surface enters the pupal state, in which condition it remains until the middle of the following summer, when the perfect fly escapes. The fly is shining black with a rust-red head and legs, and whitish wings with dusky bands. ”

“ For, as sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost,
If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post.
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected
Infallibly cures the timber affected:
The omen is broken, the danger is over;
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover. ”

“ The 'bot,' or maggot of Gastrophilus, comes to rest in the horse's stomach; often a whole family attach themselves by their mouth-hooks to a small patch of the mucous coat of that organ. The maggot is relatively short and stout, with rows of strong spicules surrounding the segments, and with spiracles capable of withdrawal through a cup-like inpushing of the tail-region of the body, so that the parasite is preserved from drowning when the host drinks water. ”

“ We feel it instinctively: there must be a check to these generative enormities. Let us first consider the grub. It is a sturdy maggot, easy to distinguish from the greenbottle's by its larger girth and especially by the way in which its body terminates behind. There is here a sudden breaking off, hollowed into a deep cup. At the bottom of this crater are two breathing holes, two stigmata with amber-red tips. The edge of the cavity is fringed with half a score of pointed, fleshy festoons, which diverge like the spikes of a coronet. ”

“ As remarked above, only flesh-eating maggots have yet been tried. It would be well worth while to experiment with the larvae of other species, such as the house fly, the stable fly, etc. There is also a white maggot known to grow in heaps of seaweed. Should the rate of growth of either of these species be found to be satisfactory they might be substituted for the flesh maggots with advantage.
Occasional use has been made of fresh fish for direct feeding. ”

“ The swarming brood creates a sort of mist with the crossing and criss-crossing of its trails. The control tube, on the contrary, keeps dry, proving that the moisture in which the worms move is not due to a mere exudation from the meat.
Besides, the work of the maggot becomes more and more evident. Gradually, the flesh flows in every direction like an icicle placed before the fire. Soon, the liquefaction is complete. What we see is no longer meat, but fluid Liebig's extract. ”

“ The maggot isolates itself to the best of its power and withdraws from the garish day before contracting into a little keg. In ordinary conditions, with a loose soil, it goes hardly lower than a hand's breadth down, for provision has to be made for the difficulties of the return to the surface when the insect, now full grown, is impeded by its delicate fly wings. The grub, therefore, deems itself suitably isolated at a moderate depth. Sideways, the layer that shields it from the light is of indefinite thickness ”

“ The puparium is brown to ferruginous or black and about 10 mm. long. The maggots are found in both natives and white men, and occur as a severe pest in dogs, also in monkeys, rats, and other mammals. In Sierra Leone it is called the “tumba fly.” The larvæ have been frequently found as true subcutaneous parasites, each larva living singly and forming a boil or warble in the skin, with an opening just as in an ox-warble, through which the maggot breathes and eventually escapes. ”

“ Let us consider the grub grown to a sufficient size. It is the usual fly larva, the common maggot, shaped like an elongated cone, pointed in front, truncated behind, where two little red spots show, level with the skin: these are the breathing holes. The front, which is called the head by stretching a word—for it is little more than the entrance to an intestine—the front is armed with two little black hooks, which slide in a translucent sheath, project a little way outside and go in turn by turn. Are we to look upon these as mandibles? ”

“ The maggot, or larvæ, here described is that of a fly called the Anthomyia (Pegomyia) betæ, mangel-wurzel fly. An allied species will sometimes be found on the common dock-leaves, mining their galleries between the dermal cells of the leaves.
We have for some time observed the increase of this pest, and we are prepared to state that now we seldom see a crop that is not greatly injured by its attacks. Mr. Curtis thinks that the best method to destroy them is to employ boys to crush the leaves between the thumb and fingers at the part where the larvæ can be seen ”

“ The Aphis appears to suffer at first but little, since it soon resumes its occupation of pumping up the sap. A worm-like, or more commonly, a maggot-like creature, according to the species of the parasite, hatches from this egg, which revels in the organised nutritious fluid elaborated by the Aphis. The greater part of the abdomen is occupied by this maggot when it becomes full fed, and then it may often be seen through the transparent integument, as a grub curled into a semicircle. ”

“ The larva of this fly, the "Warble maggot," lives and thrives in the skin of cattle, and causes a sore and swelling. The life-history of this insect is still in dispute, but it is generally thought that the eggs are laid in the hair on the animal's back, and the young larva eats its way through the hide until just below the dermis, and there feeds until mature. ”

“ That a grub destined to live in the darkness, under the shelter of a corpse, should avoid the light is only natural; the strange part is its very perception. The maggot is blind. Its pointed fore part, which we hesitate to call a head, bears absolutely no trace of any optical apparatus; and the same with every other part of the body. There is nothing but one bare, smooth, white skin. And this sightless creature, deprived of any special nervous points served by ocular power, is extremely sensitive to the light. ”

“ MAGGOTS, LICE AND RAIDERS--PRACTICES OF THESE HUMAN VERMIN--PLUNDERING THE SICK AND DYING--NIGHT ATTACKS, AND BATTLES BY DAY--HARD TIMES FOR THE SMALL TRADERS.
With each long, hot Summer hour the lice, the maggot-flies and the N'Yaarkers increased in numbers and venomous activity. They were ever-present annoyances and troubles; no time was free from them. The lice worried us by day and tormented us by night; the maggot-flies fouled our food, and laid in sores and wounds larvae that speedily became masses of wriggling worms. ”

“ When the fly first hatches from the egg, it is a little white, wriggling worm called a maggot, like those that some of you may have seen in decaying meat or fish or cheese. The maggots must have decaying substances to eat and live upon while they are growing, and this is why the eggs are laid in manure heaps and garbage piles. ”

“ The maggots are tended by these nurses with the greatest care, and carried to those parts of the nest most favourable for their health and growth. When fully grown, the maggot spins an oval silken cocoon within which it pupates (fig. 3, g) . These cocoons, which may often be seen carried between the mandibles of the workers, are the “ants’ eggs” prized as food for fish and pheasants. ”

“ The young is, at first, a small maggot in appearance, after which the larva assumes the form in which it is known as the tettigometra.105 It bursts its shell about the time of the summer solstice, and then takes to flight, which always happens in the night. The insect, at first, is black and hard. ”

“ The two guttural grapnels serve for walking much rather than for feeding. The worm plants them alternately in the road traversed and, by contracting its crupper, advances just that distance. It carries in its tubular throat the equivalent of our iron tipped sticks which give support and assist progress.
Thanks to this machinery of the mouth, the maggot not only moves over the surface, but also easily penetrates the meat: I see it disappear as though it were dipping into butter. It cuts its way, levying, as it goes, a preliminary toll, but only of liquid mouthfuls. ”

“ MOSQUITOES AND FLIES
or buried in mud or any other sort medium, so long as it keeps one end of the body out for breathing. The rat-tailed maggot (Fig. I72) , which is the larva of a large fly that looks like a drone bee, has taken a special advantage of its respiratory system; for the rear end of its body, bearing the posterior spiracles, is drawn out into a long, slender tube. ”

“ Extensive experimentation in the control of this insect has been carried out without much success. No effective insecticide treatment can be recommended for its control.
~Walnut husk maggot.~ The adult of the walnut husk maggot [12] is a fly (Fig. 3) ; it is related to other injurious fruit flies such as the apple maggot, Mediterranean fruit fly, and the oriental fruit fly, which has recently been found in Hawaii. Adults emerge from the soil and fly to the trees in midsummer. Egg laying follows in 1 to 3 weeks, the eggs being deposited on the husks of several kinds of nuts. ”

“ They then become, to appearance, a fat maggot, and make their way to the floors and walls, where it is supposed they secrete themselves for a season, and are increasing in numbers whilst in this stage of existence. ”

“ Garden crops are at- tacked by leaf maggots and root maggots; orchardists in the northern States have to contend against the apple maggot, which is a relation of the olive fly of southern Europe and of the destructive fruit files of tropical coun- tries. That notorious scourge of wheat fields, the Hessian fly, is a second or third cousin of the mosquito, and it is in its larva form that it makes all the trouble. The special attention that bas been given to pestiferous files must make it appear that the Diptera are a most undesirable order of insects. ”

“ The larva lives in dust, is an active footless maggot, of a whitish colour, and is sparsely hairy. When full grown it spins a cocoon and pupates. The duration of the pupal stage depends on the temperature. ”

“ Root-maggot:—This is a small white grub, often causing serious injury to radishes, onions and the cabbage group. Liming the soil and rotation are the best preventives. Destroy all infested plants, being sure to get the maggots when pulling them up. The remaining plants should be treated with a gill of strong caustic lime water, or solution of muriate of potash poured about the root of each plant, first removing an inch or so of earth. ”

“ Fly lays her eggs in unclean places, and as many as a hundred eggs at a time. These eggs hatch out quickly. It takes only twenty-one days to make a chicken out of an egg, but to make a baby fly it takes only a few hours, and ugly babies they are—little white maggots, or worms, that live and feed and grow rapidly in dirty places. Within six days the maggot becomes a tiny, dark-brown pupa, and after five days the pupa hatches out into a grown-up fly. ”

“ The railroad-worm, a small white maggot which eats a small path in all directions through the ripening fruit, cannot be reached by spraying, as he starts life inside the fruit; but where good clean tillage is practiced and no fallen fruit is left to lie and decay under the trees, he is not apt to give much trouble. ”

“ I have found that the insect usually attacks late-sown and feeble plants. If the maggot were in my garden, I should use the little sets only.
Some special manures have been employed in attaining the greatest success with this vegetable. In England, pigeon-dung and the cleanings of the pigsty are extensively employed. In this country the sweepings of the hen-roost are generally recommended. It should be remembered that all these are strong agents, and if brought in contact with the roots of any vegetable while in a crude, undiluted state, burn like fire, especially in our climate. ”

“ As they increase into clusters, they do not swell like roots that grow singly.
They are propagated by dividing these clustered roots into separate offsets, and planting the divisions in April, in very shallow drills one foot apart; placing them about six inches apart in the drills, and covering them lightly with earth. Soot mixed with the surface-soil has been found of much service to prevent the maggot from committing extensive depredations upon this plant. The only after-culture required is that of keeping them clean from weeds, and occasionally stirring the ground. ”

“ Most of them contain a dead maggot, which has dried up while quite young. Some hide a live larva, well developed, but lacking in strength. You can see that the creature has suffered not from want of food, for the kernel is almost entirely consumed, but from another unsatisfied need. Lastly, a small number show me a live grub and an exit-hole made in the regular manner. These lucky ones, immured by the gum perhaps when they were already full-grown, had the strength to perforate the casket ”