h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a real problem with these little terrors. As a child I had no problem sticking a hook through their heads (or at least the end that looks like a head) and in certain circumstances they do not bother me. But has anybody ever discovered an item of food that is well past it's use-by date (come on students - own up) that has been populated by maggots? Or even worse, finding a dead animal and then noticing that it seems to be moving, and on closer inspection ...... AAAAAARGH!

Oh I can certainly agree with you on this one...euwww.

Worse than Daddy Long Legs aren't they?

Ok, i have two stories to share on this subject. The first and most tramautizing, which has caused me to despise the things happened when I was about 7. I had left a mug which had contained hot chocolate in my room. Sometime later, my mom found it and informed me of it's inhabitants. She decided to disuade me from leaving food items in my room, she would tell me that when they ran out of food, they would eat me. Let me just tell you that I NEVER left food in my room again! The second does not have to do with what I did or food. We were cleaning up a room in my old house when I was about 14. I had an old waterbed that did not have a matress, but was assembled. It had some boxes under the end. When we removed said boxes, there was a large, moist spot underneath with maggots crawling in it. Some poor creature had been brought in by one of our cats and left to die. We weren't even sure as to what the thing had been originally. So to continue, we got rid of the mess and were vaccuuming up the remaining offensive creatures. We left the spot to clean elsewhere, and when we returned to the spot, there were more of the little buggers. We vaccuumed them up as well and they just kept coming up through the rug. It was awful! We finally got them all gone, but it took forever. Just thought I'd share my tales.

Snadj

yeah i guess so...but i encounter daddy long legs' far more often than maggots, thank god!!!Hehe...

Maisie

Also, I have just recalled another reason I hate them. When I was a child I lived on a farm where there were some sheep. Occasionally we would notice that a patch of a sheeps wool appeared to be damp and the animal was trying to scratch it. On catching them and inspecting more closely we would find beneath the wool a hole in the flesh with maggots eating the poor animal alive! This was quite common and once discovered could be easily treated. Interestingly the wounds caused by maggots in this way were always very clean - I believe maggots have been used for medical purposes because of their ability to clean wounds - however I still detest them.