Maggots in my gerbil food please help?!?

Question

Alright so I just finished my nightly feeding of my gerbils and when I put some food in the boys cage I noticed a small white worm on top. I think it is a maggot but I'm not sure. There was only one. I flipped out and ran from the room to go wash my hands. I don't see any maggots in the food but I only see one maggot on the boys cage but it seemed to have ran off.

How to you get rid of maggots, and can they cause any bodily harm to me or my gerbils?

Answer 1

maggots will not hurt you or your pets. It is a fact sterile maggots are used medically to remove dead skin from wounds that heal slowly.  It could be that your gerbils ate it.

Answer 2

ewww. i don't know what that is but i would be cleaning everything in detail new food, bedding and all of that. i wouldn't want my pets near it.

gl.

Answer 3

The cereal used in small animal foods can sometimes contain moth larvae which will hatch in the heat. They can also contain flour beetle eggs. This happens when the cereal is taken off the field and stored in the factories.

I have experience this from working in a petfood warehouse. The only solution is to get some fresh gerbil food.

If we found food with larvae in it or a lot of dust then it went back to the supplier.

Maggots can harm your pet and burrow into their a**s. Its like rabbits getting flystrike.

Clean out the bedding and disinfect the cage with a suitable animal disinfectant to prevent this from occurring.

Answer 4

http://www.dragonflypower.com/images/exp...

was it a maggot? if so, pick through enough food to last your Gerbils the night, put it in the cage and throww the rest of it out! go tomorw and buy new stuff. and id keep it in a rubbermaid container if i were you/....

Answer 5

it sounds like they are maggots from a little moth, i can't remember the name of it but if your gerbil food has nuts in it then it is more than likely moth maggots,  the moth lays its eggs on nuts and the maggots eat them as they hatch, they are a nightmare to get rid of, the best thing you can do is too buy some fresh food and get rid of the food you have, keep the food in an air tight container to stop the moth laying again, the moth in question is about a 2 mm big and a grey color with slight black markings,  i am not sure if they will hurt your gerbil but they will eat through the food and it will get a slight musty smell to it, i personally would just bin the lot to be on the safe side

Answer 6

Are you sure it was a maggot? I have seen maggots (which are fly larvae) and there are usually hundred of them when you find them. They look like rice pellets that move, and not very quickly.

I don't know about bodily harm, but if they are maggots, they turn into flies.