Decaying Process - The Hindu

Home » Where Does Worms Come From » Decaying Process - The Hindu

Maybe your like

  1. Home
  2. Sci-Tech
  3. Science
Decaying process

How do worms form in decaying matter? Where do they come from? How can one prevent their their growth

Updated - November 17, 2021 06:56 am IST

READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Google Preferred Source

Worms which are seen crawling in dead matter are in fact maggots or the larvae of flies. When a human being or an animal dies, its body starts emitting foul smell due to putrefaction of tissues.

Flies are soon attracted to the smell which start showing up within 2-3 hours of death. By 12 hours or so, the body will be more or less engulfed with flies. Son after one can see the body covered by tiny white dots which are nothing but the eggs laid by flies.

How soon the eggs will hatch, depends on the type of flies in question but within few hours, maggots can be seen crawling beneath the flesh.

When the maggots hatch the first thing they do is burrow under the skin, leaving tiny holes, like pock marks all over the body. The maggots burrow down deep and eat all of the inner flesh.

There are thousands of maggots which eat away entire flesh in few hours. Soon after the flesh is finished, they start appearing on the skin — what we see as worms. One can control the appearing of maggots by spraying strong disinfectant all over the body or by embalming. Embalming is the process by which a dead body can be preserved temporarily for some time.

In this process a liquid, generally, formaldehyde or/and ethanol is injected in to the body through the arteries. In ancient times Egyptians used to preserve dead bodies by mummifying them. Mummifying (see picture above) is different from embalming where body fluid and soft tissues were taken out and the cavities thus formed were filled up by disinfected material.

S.P.S. JAIN

New Delhi

Published - March 04, 2010 08:24 pm IST

Read Comments
  • Copy link
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Telegram
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Reddit
READ LATER SEE ALL Remove PRINT

Related stories

  • Egyptian mummies hold clues of ancient air pollution

Related Topics

human science

0 / 0The HinduSign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in✕Looks like you are already logged in from more than 5 devices!To continue logging in, remove at least one device from the below list
  • Log out
Log Out from all devices

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

${ ind + 1 } ${ device }Last active - ${ la }

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Tag » Where Does Worms Come From