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HOW DO MAGGOTS TREAT INFECTED TISSUE?

Maggots can be applied to infected tissue to feast on the bacteria and dead cells in chronic wounds. As well as cleaning the injury, the larvae also boost its chances of healing.

Although it may make you feel a little queasy, this ancient therapy has actually been used since Biblical times but fell out of favour when antibiotics were discovered.

Maggots were also used during the American Civil War to prevent gangrene.

And in the French trenches of WW1, doctors noticed how wounds with maggots in them were less likely to become infected and healed faster, with soldiers therefore being less at risk of dying from their injuries.

Due to the antibiotic-resistance crisis, interest in the creepy-crawlies has resurfaced. 

Maggots do not directly eat damaged tissue but instead release saliva that contains enzymes that break down bacteria and dead cells.

These enzymes also increase the production of chemicals in the immune system that help to kill bacteria.  

The FDA approved medical-grade maggots as a 'medical device' in 2004 for chronic or non-healing wounds. The NHS also offers maggot therapy for gangrene.

These larvae are specially bred in a lab using eggs that have been treated to remove bacteria. Without this treatment, the maggots may actually introduce infections to the wound.

The maggots are then placed on the injured site and covered with gauze.

Although the larvae are just as effective when loose, covering them with a dressing reduces a patient's anxiety that the worm-like creatures may be crawling all over them.

The maggots are typically left on for between two and four days, or until they stop eating or become adult flies.

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