I had the misfortune of coming across a dead deer the other day. Probably hit by a truck or large vehicle. Regardless, there were maggots crawling all over it. It got me thinking about where they came from. Did they just sniff the thing out like other animals that feed on carcasses? I’ve never seen maggots “roaming” throught the wild though. So where do they originate from?
Maggot are fly larvae. The fllies sniff out the carcass, cruise over and chow down, and lay eggs. A few days later they pupate and voila, new flies.
Where do maggots come from? They are fly larvae. If an animal has a wound and is left outdoors, the flies will immediately descent on the victim and lay eggs in the wound. The maggots grow large inside and they feed off of the turtle’s flesh. Signs of maggot infestations are holes in the turtle’s skin or shell out of which is oozing a black fluid. When you see this, a queasy feeling will come over you.
Maggots in the flesh can usually be pulled out with long-nosed tweezers. Flush the wound with peroxide or mild salty water. It may take several days or even weeks to remove all of the maggots. When they are all gone, the hole will close up and when completely healed, the turtle can be allowed to play outdoors again.
Source: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/felicerood/index-17.htm#maggots
Somebody should mention Francesco Redi, revered by scientists the world over as the guy who figured out where maggots come from.
Just remember that not all animals are turtles 
Pravnik is right- beforer Redi’s experiments, it was widely taken for granted that maggots just appeared out of nowhere.
Belief in spontaneous generation of life was still far from uncommon, even among serious scientists, as recently as 150 years ago.
Speaking of maggots and wounds, Snopes has an article about an infestation in a human. WARNING!!! Disturbing images!!!
Did you hear about the two belligerent maggots?
They were fighting in dead Ernest!
I remember learning about the “meat in the two beakers with a screen over the top of one” experiment in 7th grade biology, but recently have come across two things that lead me to believe maggots can develop / grow on a rotting animal without conceivable contact with an egg-laying fly.
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Tearing out my wall where there was a stench and finding a maggot covered dead field mouse in the middle of winter when flies are no where to be found.
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Three cop freinds dicussing a maggot-ridden DOA suicide inside an SUV with all the doors & windows tightly closed.
Another place maggots may come from is your physician or doctor.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of biology could tell you that your belief is completely unfounded. No eggs? No maggots. Very simple.
You think fly eggs can’t sit around for a while before hatching? Perhaps the mouse happened upon some fly eggs one day, and they got stuck in its fur. The body heat of the mouse prompted the eggs to hatch. The mouse was just unlucky enough that this particular batch of flies (of the many batches that have possibly hatched on its fur) happened to do so after it was dead.
Maybe there was already a fly in the SUV. Maybe there were fly eggs on the person’s cloths/skin that didn’t get washed off, because dead people don’t tend to shower or do laundry.
When presented with two possibilities, one of which is improbable, and the other of which is impossible, guess which one wins?
seriously, you’re not really suggesting that the idea of spontaneous generation is true, are you?
An SUV does have air vents that a fly could enter through. The stench of rotting flesh can inspire a fly to very creative acts.
Damnit Jim, I’m a bar owner, not an entomologist! No, I was just suggesting the possibility the eggs might have come from the dead organisms digestive tract or some other internal area as opposed to the actual depositing of eggs externally.
Oh, and flies survive the winter by hiding in places like inside walls. They are sluggish in cold weather and easy to overlook. But it would only take one in the same area as your dead mouse to infest its tiny little corpse.
oh, ok, I was worried there for a minute. It will take someone with more knowledge of Biology than me to tell you whether or not an egg could survive a trip into the digestive tract. however, if someone or something was ridden with maggots, I would think it would take more than the few eggs that would survive thestomach and/or intestines.
our cat got cancer of the spinal cord, and lost feeling and function below his ribs, including control of his bowels. he was always an outdoor cat, stayed by the porch, so we let him live this way for as long as we could, cleaning him as best we could
but one day he walked up to me stinking really bad and covered in flies. he had sores and the sores were infested with maggots. that was the most horrific thing i’d ever seen in real life. i really hope he couldn’t feel those things crawling around in there.
he was 13 years old though. good life for a kitty (rip moses).
All religious debates should be taken to GD
please excuse my ignorance 
i usually don’t venture out of the pit. gd scares me.
Search me! 