What is the vegetable bug?

[kenny1999]

I once forgot to throw away some uncooked vegetable and they were not refrigerated for weeks. I only happened to remember it when it started to give out disgusting smell. The vegetable was decayed. What interested me was that there were a lot of small white bugs / worms slowing climbing and staying around the dead vegetables but there were

two interesting things I found.

1. They were very well localized and didn't seem to go out of the dead vegetables so I felt safe. I was so worried that they would have migrated to somewhere else and reproduced in my kitchen, which didn't happen. I couldn't find any bug in nearby area where the dead vegetable was put.

2. They looked so small and weak but I could hardly kill or hurt them any with great  effort, I could only throw them away out of my room or rinse them into drain.

Why is that?

[Peterkin]

Sounds a lot like maggots. They can't go anywhere until they grow wings, and even then, they can't hurt you.

Best solution: Do not keep rotting vegetables in the house. Put it out in the compost, where it has a chance to become something useful.

https://whyfarmit.com/maggots-in-compost/

[mistermack]

In my experience, these are the maggots of tiny flies. I believe they reside in the soil in plant pots, but if there are vegetables going off, they will very quickly multiply, sometimes you will get a cloud of them in as little as a day. They especially like the sink area, anywhere they can get a drink, and banana skins, or over-ripe bananas they go mad for. 

If you don't have plant pots, you don't get them. That's what I've found anyway. 

[MigL]

I worked for the Municipality, Parks and Rec Department, back in the late 70s, early 80s, while attending University, because I didn't want to be cooped up indoors in the summer.
My last summer, I was in a City truck with two permanent employees, picking up garbage from public parks.
After long weekends, when people have cook-outs and BBQs, we would always bring a jerry can of gasoline along, and after emptying the garbage, we would pour some gas into the garbage can, and light it up to burn all the maggots.

I didn't eat rice for about 20 years, after that.

[sethoflagos]

4 hours ago, kenny1999 said:

I once forgot to throw away some uncooked vegetable and they were not refrigerated for weeks. I only happened to remember it when it started to give out disgusting smell. The vegetable was decayed. What interested me was that there were a lot of small white bugs / worms slowing climbing and staying around the dead vegetables but there were

two interesting things I found.

1. They were very well localized and didn't seem to go out of the dead vegetables so I felt safe. I was so worried that they would have migrated to somewhere else and reproduced in my kitchen, which didn't happen. I couldn't find any bug in nearby area where the dead vegetable was put.

2. They looked so small and weak but I could hardly kill or hurt them any with great  effort, I could only throw them away out of my room or rinse them into drain.

Why is that?

Living in the tropics, I'm quite keen on lactic acid fermentation to preserve vegetables rather than to buy fresh daily. Fruit flies are therefore the bane of my life. It's fruit fly maggots that you've found, and they're really keen on lactic acid (Reference: https://lsi.ubc.ca/2021/07/02/not-all-acids-are-equally-sour-gordon-lab-research-sheds-light-on-why-fruit-flies-find-lactic-acid-a-delight/)

It's a real bind, but this is why you should be thorough with sterilisation of storage vessels and keeping everything airtight. 

The stinky stuff isn't the fruit fly maggots though. That's Kahm yeast. But the preventives are much the same.

[kenny1999]

Hi all,

I am living in an apartment where I don't have any plant or pots so it was purely an accident. I forgot a bag of vegetables which were hidden under other stuff until it smelt. When I picked it up some climbed on my hand, I rinsed my hands, but I wasn't sure if they were all gone, from Google search, some could hide under my skin or penetrate into my body???? Could it be that serious??

[mistermack]

I would say the chances of that happening are virtually nil. Insects tend to specialise. Fruit fly maggots eat vegetable material. Other kinds of fly maggots eat dead animal material. They are very different. And even those don't eat living flesh. Maggots will colonise an infection, and eat the dead flesh. Sometimes that helps a victim survive an infection, by removing the infected material.

Fly maggots that eat healthy flesh are pretty rare, and these fruit fly maggots are nothing like those. There is a big fly called the warble fly that lays eggs on cattle, and the maggots go under the skin and eat flesh. But they are a big fly, and very rare now, and nothing like the tiny fruit flies. 

[Peterkin]

On 9/5/2022 at 5:32 AM, kenny1999 said:

Hi all,

I am living in an apartment where I don't have any plant or pots so it was purely an accident. I forgot a bag of vegetables which were hidden under other stuff until it smelt. When I picked it up some climbed on my hand, I rinsed my hands, but I wasn't sure if they were all gone, from Google search, some could hide under my skin or penetrate into my body???? Could it be that serious??

No. They're icky, but harmless. The fact of living in an apartment is in itself further evidence that the culprit is a flying insect that thrives on rotting vegetation. Both the larva and the adult are annoying, but their life-span is short and neither can harm you. Don't leave food or drink sitting out uncovered, don't let any fruit in a bowl or basket become overripe, clean well any surfaces or containers where it has already happened, and you should be quite safe.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Peterkin