Do maggots eat carpet?

[The Flying Tench]

I went over to a church yesterday and spotted a line of what, as anglers, we call casters along the front of one of the altars. I lifted up the altar cloth and found a dead squirrel underneath. There were smallish maggots (pinkies or squats?) but the strange thing was they seemed to be eating not just the dead squirrel but the carpet! Is this possible?

[Steve Walker]

What made you think they were eating the carpet, John?

[Martin56]

Maybe possible for maggots to eat a natural fabric like wool??

Or maybe this!!

 

https://www.hunker.com/12455674/how-to-get-maggots-out-of-carpet

[Vagabond]

The chrysalis of the carpet moth is very like that of a pinkie at first glance. If you leave natural fibres and dead squirrels lying around you might well get both. The church probably harbours mice,bats, silverfish, woodworm and death watch beetle as well .

[The Flying Tench]

On the parts of the carpet where the maggots were (a few inches away from the dead squirrel) bits of fabric had come out of the carpet leaving bald patches. For some reason it felt damp there, also.

 

 

What made you think they were eating the carpet, John?

Edited December 4, 2018 by The Flying Tench

[The Flying Tench]

We certainly have mice and bats, and used to have woodworm!

 

Interesting thought re the carpet moth but, though the chrysalids may look the same, the maggots were definitely maggots, not caterpillars.

The chrysalis of the carpet moth is very like that of a pinkie at first glance. If you leave natural fibres and dead squirrels lying around you might well get both. The church probably harbours mice,bats, silverfish, woodworm and death watch beetle as well .

[Vagabond]

Re the dead squirrel It probably attracted both flies (hence maggots) and fur-eating moths (hence caterpillars) on its own account, apart from the church fabrics, I have shot enough squirrels and used the tails as a source of fly-tying material during the last 70 years or so to be well aware of the depredations moths can make on fur and feather if one neglects to keep them in an air-tight container.