Flies….Everyone despises them. They fly around trying to get in your eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. But did you know that you can also get infected by them? Now I’m not talking about diseases. I’m talking about living growing fly larvae growing inside of your body. Scary right, it could be detrimental to your health.
There are tons of different kinds of flies. Depending on the geographical features of your area you could be at high risk of both maggot infection and diseases spread by flies. Surprisingly there are quite a few species of flies that hatch in meat, like decaying animals or your most recent slaughter. Some flies though lay their eggs in the dirt, damp clothes, or bedding. These are the ones you need to be wary of.
If you like to hang your laundry out to dry you should iron every item that was air-dried. The isolated heat from the iron will kill any flies eggs or larvae that are on your laundry.
From acquaintances I have heard some pretty horrific stories. Two of these stories stick out in my mind. The first one is Laundry related, the other is Open Wound related. Here they are:
Laundry Flies
A gentleman we shall call Harry put his clothes out to dry. He liked the smell of the fresh air incased in his clothes until he wore his sweater. Harry put on his sweater and nothing was wrong. He went about his day like any other. Then 2 days after Harry wore his fresh air sweater his back started to itch. Harry didn’t think much about it until a few days later. Harry started having pain in his back where it was itchy. He decided to have a friend look it and what his friend found was astounding. While Harry’s beloved sweater was drying out in the yard a fly landed on his sweater and laid eggs. Harry didn’t notice the eggs and they ended up hatching. Since Harry was a warm juicy specimen the larvae drilled into their new home-Harry. That’s when he felt the itching. When the pain started Harry’s friend saw red bumps and lesions on Harry’s back. When Harry’s friend probed these bumps he found the end of a maggot. He grabbed some tweezers and pulled it out. There were about 12 total maggots in Harry’s back
It is not recommended to remove maggots from your own back. If you attempt it and the maggot breaks the remaining part of the maggot will retract and burrow further in. This can cause major tissue and muscle damage. If the maggot does retract or you can’t get them yourself a Doctor will need to make and incision to remove them. If the infestation is really bad the Doctor may have to do surgery.
Open Wound Flies
A gentleman we shall call Jerry fell down and hurt his leg. Jerry got pretty banged up causing an open wound to appear on his leg. Jerry hates doctors and refused to seek medical attention for his leg. Jerry is a mans man who can take care of himself. But Jerry didn’t take very good care of his leg. He left it alone and it got infected. He still refused to go the doctor. Jerry’s leg was injured for about 3months before he finally relented to being dragged to the emergency room. The only reason Jerry relented was because his leg started giving out on him and he was falling down a lot. So Jerry went to the emergency room and had to have immediate surgery. Jerry’s leg had swollen from the infection and a large amount of maggots. It seems while Jerry was neglecting his open wound that a fly landed on his sore and laid some eggs. These eggs went undetected into Jerry’s leg and grew into maggots. The maggots started to eat Jerry’s leg, the muscle, the tissue, everything. That’s why his leg started giving out. They couldn’t save his leg and had to remove it from the knee down.
Flies eggs can hatch into maggots within 1-3 days. The maggots can live without a host for up to 15 days. Maggots can generally grow to about ½ inch in length. If you do get infected my flies then you will first experience slight itching, then pain with blood and waste emitting from the infected pores (the blood and waste come from the maggot). It can take between 8-12 days for the pain to start.
You can also get infected by maggots that hatch in the dirt. If you’re walking around barefoot be wary. If the soil where the maggots hatch is disturbed then they will wiggle up to the surface to find a new host. If you’re not careful that new host could be you.
Sources: Personal Conversations with Acquaintances
Wikipedia.org
Idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pcfilthflies.htm