Skip to Content

Why There Are Maggots in My Carpet? (All You Need to Know)

Maggots (fly larvae) are the slimiest-looking little moving worms that can appear anywhere in your house, and it’s not a fun task to deal with them, mainly when they infest carpets. 

Therefore, if you are dealing with fly larvae in your carpets, you may want to go down to the reasons behind such maggot infestation in the carpets. Let’s take a look at the explanations added ahead to learn the facts.

4 Reasons For Maggots In The Carpet:

Maggot infestation happens in carpets when there is an unhygienic carpet condition, including uncleaned residues of knocked-over food and drinks or pet feces on carpets. Also, if there are greasy stains or a trash can with an open lid is placed nearby the carpet, maggots can infest the carpet.

Even though the main four reasons that can possibly cause a maggot infestation in your carpets have been mentioned above, you may still want detailed explanations of these reasons to understand the causes in a better way.

So, here the reasons are described precisely and listed below for your convenience. 

Spilled Food And Drinks:

One of the major reasons why you may find a maggot-infested carpet in your home is spilled food crumbs and drinks on the carpet that haven’t been cleaned up for many days. 

Flies are highly attracted to places with spoiled food or food/drink residues, thereby, if you didn’t clean up spilled food or drinks from the carpet for many days, those food crumbs or drops of drinks will decay after a few days making the carpet unhygienic enough for flies to lay eggs.

And within a day these eggs will be hatched and form into maggots that eventually will be feasting on the same decayed foods/drinks from your carpet while making the carpet infested. 

Pet Feces: 

It’s natural for flies to be drawn to pet feces wherever they find them because of the disgusting smell, and they make another ideal spot for flies to lay eggs. Besides, pet feces are dirty and can provide enough food for fly larvae (maggots) to feast on when they are hatched. 

So if you have pets in your home, it’s natural for them to poop or pee on your carpet accidentally.

But if you forgot to clean their feces on time or have left your pet feces on the carpet for a long time, eventually flies will lay eggs that within a day will hatch and turn into maggots while overspreading on our carpet. 

Open Trash Can: 

Keeping an open garbage bin closer to the carpet can be a potential reason behind having a maggot-infested carpet. 

Many of us keep trash cans in our living room/bedrooms so that we can throw trash easily.

However, if the garbage bin is kept open or the lid is loose, it highly attracts flies because a garbage bin is a super dirty place that contains rotten and smelly food and other objects which makes it the perfect site for flies to breed and feed their larvae (maggots) food.

Over time, when the maggots become capable of moving out of the garbage bin, they look for a nearby warm place to stay until turn into flies, thereby, they can settle down on your carpet. 

Greasy Stains: 

Greasy stains on carpets can be a reason for maggot infestation in your carpet as greasy stains are hard to take off after a long time. And they leave stubborn oily stains on the carpet along with some food particles that have already sunk deep inside your carpet’s fibers.

As a result, flies get their food in carpets, so they lay eggs there that afterward hatch into fly larvae and cause a maggot infestation in your carpet.

Can Maggots Live In The Carpet? How Long Can They Live In A Carpet?

Maggots can live well on the carpet because carpets are usually made of wool or silk fabric which contains keratin, a protein element that flies and their larvae eat to live.

So if once fly larvae can get into a carpet, they can dwell there even if there aren’t any other sources of food for them. 

However, if the carpet is dirty and unhygienic one with spilled food/drinks, pet feces, or greasy stains on it, it makes potential food sources for flies. As a result, flies will be allured by such a dirty condition and they will breed there. Also, their larvae will start living there too. 

And in a carpet, maggots possibly will reside for 3-5 days. But if the carpet material seems still edible to fly larvae, they may stay there for 14-36 days or until they turn into flies.

Are Maggots In The Carpet Harmful?

As you know maggots in the carpet can be a real problem sometimes for your home, so if you find your carpet infested with either white or brown maggots, you may want to learn which maggot is potentially more harmful. So here are the explanations. 

White Maggots:

White maggots also known as carpet beetles are harmful to the carpet where they have overspread.

 This is because maggots are fed on the carpet fiber, so their chewing potentially will leave holes in the carpet, causing permanent damage. Besides, if they latch onto human clothes, their bristly hairs will irritate human skin.

White maggots in the carpet are especially dangerous to pets with open wounds as they can make them even sicker. 

Brown Maggots:

Brown maggots in the carpet are as dangerous as white maggots. Potentially, they don’t cause any danger to human beings, but if they get onto clothes from the carpet, a skin irritation can occur.

They also can make your pet sick by latching onto their skin or wounds. Moreover, brown maggots can also damage the carpet where they are residing. 

How To Get Rid Of Maggots In My Carpet?

With the right methods, you can eliminate maggots from your carpet all by yourself without any professional’s help.

Here the six very effective methods for getting rid of maggots from your carpet have been listed below for your convenience. 

Boric Acid Powder: 

The boric acid powder contains insecticidal elements that destroy fly larvae. The crystals of boric acid powder are rough and sharp, so when maggots are exposed to boric acid, it cuts through their bodies and instantly finishes their lives. 

To apply boric acid, take a firm bristled brush or broom and buff the boric acid powder deep inside your carpet’s fiber without damaging the rug so that the boric acid reaches underneath it and completely destroys the fly larvae.

After scrubbing, let the boric acid rest for a few hours to work on the maggots. And once you are done, vacuum the carpet thoroughly by ensuring you have scooped all larvae from the carpet.

Distilled White Vinegar Powder: 

Distilled white vinegar powder has acetic acid that perforates through the maggots’ bodies and ends their lives. You can simply sprinkle the white vinegar powder over the rug and rub the powder way down the carpet’s fiber with a brush or broom.

Alternately, mix 1 part of vinegar and 3 parts of water together and spray the solution over the carpet to eliminate maggots. Then, leave the vinegar powder or solution for a few hours to act on fly larvae. Lastly, vacuum the whole rug to remove the larvae and give a steam cleaning. 

Dishwasher Soap: 

Dishwasher soap is another effective method of terminating fly larvae from your carpet. It’s because it has borax, a natural pesticide expert in finishing the lives of fly larvae.

So, just drizzle some dishwasher soap over the maggot-infested rug and allow it to rest for some time so that it can destroy the fly larvae. Then, vacuum and steam clean the carpet to finish the process. 

Hydrogen Peroxide And Boiling Water: 

Hydrogen peroxide not only effectively eliminates maggots, but also sanitizes the infested area or an object. Diluting one and a half cups of hydrogen peroxide in one gallon of boiling water will effectively end the maggots’ lives. 

However, if you wish, you can just pour piping hot water without hydrogen peroxide on your carpet to annihilate maggots.

Vacuuming And Steam Cleaning: 

You can simply use your vacuum cleaner to vacuum the whole carpet thoroughly. And keep on vacuuming the infested rug until you are sure that all maggots are vacuumed. 

After that, meticulously steam clean the vacuumed carpet so that any remaining fly larvae get removed. You can add a pesticide containing pyrethrin to the hot water instead of pouring plain hot water into the steam cleaner’s water tank to ensure deep cleaning.

Final Thoughts 

A dirty and unhygienic carpet creates an ideal spot for flies to lay eggs and it’s the main reason why maggots infest a carpet. Except for this, a nearby garbage bin and pet feces or greasy stains on the carpet are the other potential reasons that make maggots overspread on the carpet.