Gross thought, but is there such a thing a maggot farms?

[Why??]

I pass a Fishing shop which sells maggots on my way to work and some days the smell is awful. Yesterday there was a really manky looking van making a delivery (not the van, the men!) to the shop of what I presume was maggots. This got me thinking, if it was, then do people actually farm them? ewwwww it's so disgusting.That would mean that as you need flies to lay the eggs, do they have tanks of 100's of flies and decaying flesh or something?

My worst nightmare!!!

Please tell me there is a nicer way.(if that is possible)

[B00]

Yep they do!

There used to me one fairly near me at Todmorden, the smell was terrible. I never went inside to find out how they actually did it though, thank God!

[jon1968]

Yes Why??

There used to be one quite near me when I was living in Kent and on a hot day and if the wind was blowing in the �wrong� direction it absolutely reeked!
I'm the same as BOO, never bothered to find out how it was done - I dread to think what it must be like to work there!

Fortunately I only lived there for a few months but the locals had been trying to get it shut down for years!

[hammerman]

I watched a programme on how maggots were produced once.

A huge warehouse has literally millions and millions of bluebottles flying around. Everyday, tons of old chicken carcasses are thrown on the floor and the flies lay eggs on them.
The maggots are then collected somehow. The programme was a while ago so i can't remember it all.

One thing....fresh maggots that come out of the tackle shop shouldn't smell. I keep mine in the fridge and you can't notice any pong at all....believe me, i'd know about it if it did pong !!!

[vehelpfulguy]

Someone I knew owned a maggot farm producing maggots for fishermen (maybe it should be fisherpeople)

He called it Master Bait.

[africankiwi]

Usually a carcass of some sort is hung up with a drip tray underneath that is filled with shredded bran. The flies land on the carcass, lay, then when the maggots grow and have a good feed they drop off into the bran from where they can be harvested.Yeah its a stinky process but necessary to obtain maggots as a food source for small lizards or birds etc. Oh and also the local Fishing shop.