Expert of this article: Zhu Guangxi, popular science writer, member of Beijing Science Popularization Association
Nearly halfway through autumn now, the vitality of the various bugs does not seem to have diminished significantly. In addition to guarding against mosquitoes, there is also a kind of prevention - food bugs.
When the weather is not too cold, the food can easily spoil, not only will it be moldy, but there will even be some small white bugs without legs. And these bugs, in general, we call them maggots.
If you see maggots growing in the leftover meals that have not been put in the refrigerator, do you want to vomit in an instant? Want to mouth the area?
Nausea to nausea, in fact, in our daily life, maggots are very common.
Maggots, also known as headless larvae, are the larvae of the diptera Mangopoda, with a severe degeneration of both the head and mouthparts, and are all limbless larvae.
Without showing such an expression, some more practical questions come: Since this thing is common, what are they? Where did it come from? Will I get sick if I accidentally eat it? How can I prevent them from appearing in any corner of my home?
Today we will systematically popularize maggots.
What are the main adult maggots?
Many people think that maggots are all fly larvae that crawl out of the toilet, which is obviously incomplete.
The adult maggots include not only our common flies (houseflies), but also aphid-eating flies, rough-armed flies, delicate flies, cheese flies, corpse flies, thin flies, stalk-eye flies, folding winged flies, flies, armor flies, spot-bellied flies, color-eyed flies, carrion flies, small flower flies, grass flies, fruit flies, etc. The larvae of some flies are also called maggots. The larvae are maggot insects with a total of about 100 families.
Not only maggots grow in poorly preserved meals, but also maggots in some fruits. For example, the larvae of the citrus fruit fly are maggots that parasitize in citrus fruits, and the adult eggs are laid in the young fruits of citrus plants, and the spawning site varies with the citrus species.
After the eggs of the citrus fruit fly hatch in the fruit, the larvae eat in groups and the damaged fruit falls off in large quantities. The larvae can crawl out of the ground with the fruit or before the fruit has landed, and pupate into the soil to overwinter. Very few larvae and pupae can be transported with the fruit and overwinter in the fruit.
With the transportation of fruits, this bug can reach all over the world. It is a well-known international and domestic phytosanitary pest.
What if you accidentally eat this maggot while eating fruit? Stomach acid can kill larvae, and the larvae do not contain toxins, so the larvae that eat into the stomach generally do not harm the human body.
Another kind of root maggot takes another route: burrowing into the soil and eating the roots of the Cabbage, causing the germs in the soil to take advantage of the void and cause the Cabbage gang to rot.
Fruit flies are also often seen on rotten fruits, and the larvae of fruit flies are also maggots, but because they only eat fruit, they are relatively less dirty.
How to prevent maggots from growing in food?
Ancients always thought that maggots were spontaneous, and later entomologist Francisco Reddy did an experiment. He placed two pieces of meat in two jars, one with an open mouth and the other sealed with gauze.
As a result, maggots appeared in the open jar, maggots soon after they laid eggs on the flesh, while maggots did not appear in the other jar.
Maggots are only the larvae of insects such as flies, and they do not have the ability to reproduce offspring. If you want to keep food free of fly-like larvae, just keep the flies out of the way.
Where else do maggots grow in the house?
Today's home environment is generally relatively hygienic, fly larvae will not appear in the home, unless there is a decomposing animal carcass in the home, or there is food that has not been cleaned up for a long time. Once discovered, we can use pesticides to eliminate them.
In addition, most fly larvae are related to decay, and if human wounds are not effectively treated, they may also grow fly larvae!
Are maggots all pests?
There are bad maggots, as well as good maggots, such as the aphid-eating fly maggots, which are known for preying on aphids. At first glance, its adult insects resemble bees, with two large eyes, both yellow and black bodies, and all of them are buzzing when they fly, except that the aphid-eating fly has only one pair of forewings, and the hindwings have degenerated into a balance bar.
Bees are hymenoptera and have two pairs of four wings. The imitation of bees by aphid-eating flies is typical of the Bee's mimicry. It uses the tiger threat of the bees to scare off potential enemies.
Female aphid-eating flies generally lay their eggs near aphids, and most of the larvae are predatory, and can prey on a large number of aphids, mesozoans, whiteflies, leafhoppers, thrips, lepidoptera small larvae, which are well-known beneficial insects.
Maggots are also used in medicine. Maggots in medicine are produced in a sterile environment, and they undergo strict sterilization. When these maggots are introduced into the wound, they can quickly eat the necrotic tissue, and the bacteria in the wound are digested by them without affecting other normal tissues.
Not only that, but the chemicals secreted by maggots can also promote the breakdown of necrotic tissue, allowing wounds to recover faster. As long as maggots are removed before they become pupae, they will not affect the healing of the wound and will not produce new maggots. How's it going, great or not?
In addition, the fruit fly is now one of the most important organisms in biological research, with more than 4,000 species described so far, and is very popular with geneticists because of its short lifespan, convenient feeding, and simple chromosomes.
Is there a new understanding of maggots?
Of course, even though they have so many uses
We still don't want to see them at home!
To this end, try to keep your home clean and tidy
Source: Popular Science China