Maggots infest CT water

2006-04-12 18:29

Cape Town - Rat-tailed maggots, every bit as ugly as they sound, have been popping out of basins, toilets and taps across Cape Town, sparking a citywide panic that health officials tried to calm on Wednesday.

Ivan Toms, Cape Town director of health, said the risk that the water supply was infested was slim.

Toms said: "The water is chlorinated and filtered and comes from dams in the mountains where it is extremely unlikely this maggot would be found."

The body of the aquatic brownish larva can grow up to 2.5cm long, with a rat-like tail that can be twice that length. The tail serves as a breathing tube.

The rat-tailed maggot later metamorphosises into the brightly coloured drone fly, which looks like a honey bee and feeds on pollen.

Toms said the maggots usually were found in stagnant water and the drone fly, possibly on the increase in the city, might have laid its eggs inside hand-basin pipes.

He said the cylindrical, crush-resistant grub-like body was unlikely to cause major health problems if swallowed.

"Since the rat tailed maggot is quite large and clearly visible to the naked eye, it is highly unlikely that it would be ingested in the first place," said Toms.

- Reuters