“I have found about seven of these tiny white maggots on my bathroom floor this morning in various locations” states this reader about the short, maggot-like creatures pictured below. Our reader additionally asks where the creatures may be coming from and what she can do to get rid of them.

As a self-proclaimed clean freak, the thought of these maggots crawling about in her house “scares the hell” out of our reader, so her desire for help is quite urgent. We will do our best to provide that help and answer our reader’s questions. These maggots could be a number of things. The most likely worm-like creature to show up in a bathroom is a drain fly larva, and although they can appear to be an off-white, cream color, they are not nearly as stark white as the creatures in the photos our reader sent in. Besides, drain fly larvae tend to have darker brown stripes and bristles. Alternatively, they could be clothes moth larvae feeding on our reader’s towels or bath mats, as long as the towels are made up of some organic material (most likely cotton). Our reader may want to check where her towels are stored in the bathroom for any more roaming larvae, as this would be the most likely breeding site and thus the source of the infestation. If she does find more of the larvae, she is going to want to launder the towels at the highest temperature they can withstand, and vacuum out her cupboard, and her entire bathroom for that matter, to eradicate the infestation. If these truly are clothes moth larvae, then they will most likely have been laid as eggs by a mother moth on the source of food (which includes any soft material that is animal-based, like leather, or organic, like cotton).

On the other hand, these could very well be actual maggots, this term mostly referring to the larvae of house flies or fruit flies. Perhaps there is some stray organic matter that is lying and rotting somewhere in the bathroom? Or perhaps the bathroom has experienced some form of neglect, either in terms of its use or in terms of cleaning. House fly larvae feed primarily on decomposing organic matter, so there would have to be something in that bathroom that is attractive to them for that many larvae to show up in one morning. Then again, it could just be that a fly laid her eggs in the bathroom, on what seemed to be a promising location (perhaps a drain, where a film of organic matter tends to build up over time), and they all hatched that fateful morning our reader found them and started crawling across the floor in search of better food (like the compost bin in a kitchen). If this is the case, then they are likely not infesting the bathroom, but they just hatched in there. Either way, to get rid of house fly larvae, one should first remove all roaming larvae by ‘hand’ (perhaps using a dustpan is better so as not to crush them). Then, one should make sure their entire home is free of any organic debris (crumbs, spilled drinks, etc.) by thoroughly cleaning the entire home, but especially the kitchen, bathroom and anywhere food is often consumed.

To conclude, the white maggots our reader found on her bathroom floor are likely either clothes moth larvae or house fly larvae, or even some other fly or moth larvae. It is hard to say for certain, as one cannot get more generic than a white-colored maggot-like creature; there is an innumerable number of larvae that fit that description. Either way, we hope that the information and advice we provided in this article will be of use to our reader, even if we could not provide any concrete answers. However, we thought it would be better to give more general information about a few of the creatures it might be, rather than hone in on one identity and potentially set our reader up for failure by identifying it incorrectly and giving the wrong advice. The best of luck to her!

Summary

Article Name

Maggots Roaming Bathroom Floor Could be Clothes Moth Larvae or House Fly Larvae

Description

"I have found about seven of these tiny white maggots on my bathroom floor this morning in various locations" states this reader about the short, maggot-like creatures pictured below. Our reader additionally asks where the creatures may be coming from and what she can do to get rid of them.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton