While the common green bottle fly is a frequent visitor to garbage, feces, and other decaying organisms, these insects as larvae are becoming part of a growing and innovative medical movement. The maggots used within medical procedures to help heal wounds are those of the common green bottle fly, also known as Lucilia sericata (8). Within the Diptera class and Calliphoridae family, these fly’s yellowish-white eggs that are approximately one and a half millimeters long and are laid and hatched within eighteen to twenty-one hours (1). Once these eggs hatch, these soon-to-be flies become maggots, yellowish-white, smooth, conical-shaped larvae that can grow to twelve to eighteen millimeters with small, eye-shaped spiracles that are used for respiration (1). After four to nine days of development, these maggots then crawl into soil to pupate and become pupae (1). This pupa stage lasts around seven days and is when maggots become enclosed in a white, light brown, or black shell where they gain wings (1). Once these new flies emerge from their pupae, they are soft and do not yet contain any color (1). After roughly 48 hours, these flies harden and will gain a metallic-green color (1). These adult flies have hairy backs and are around eight to ten millimeters long (1). After three to ten days, mating activity occurs and this life cycle starts all over again (1)!
Common green bottle flies and their larvae are able to live throughout the northern hemisphere and can be found almost anywhere in the United States (9). The insects are often found at garbage dumps near the abundance of trash and waste, or on farms, where there is an abundance of fruit, feces, and dead animals (8). While these locations are filled with these flies’ favorite food sources, these insects lay their eggs almost exclusively in dead flesh and/or within wounds (11). These eggs and soon-to-be maggots are an important part of the medical community, and are becoming increasingly popular because of their helpful interaction with humans.
Though descriptions of all stages of life for these green bottle flies were listed, the larvae stage is what people in the medical field find to be the most important. These maggots are known as scavengers that live on dung and decaying flesh (1). With this diet in mind, scientists and physicians work together in order to make these young insects useful to the medical world, and use them to feed on decaying flesh within patients’ wounds. Through this process, not only are patients benefiting from a wound-cleaning, but these medical maggots are able to enjoy a long-lasting, and likely delicious, meal.