What is this on my kitchen counter?! (Pic included)

[holidayers]

This was on the kitchen counter, four of these quite close together. No food close by and the place is clean. It's not moving but I'm so grossed out. What the heck is it? Pic in next post

Actually thinking about it I've got the life cycle wrong haven't I? They start off as eggs laid on rotten food/dead body. Then turn into massive disgusting maggots. Then the pupae. Then hatch into flies. So at least the flies will have just flown off now. They must have dropped from somewhere though? Could it have been through a gap in the ceiling? Any spotlights there? Could a mouse have got trapped between the floorboards and ceiling?

They also look like pupae cases to me too. You've got some bugs...

😂😂😂😂

I'm itching all over reading all of this. Where are the live animals there's no food in that area at all, leave alone rotting food. Even the cupboards underneath have only pots and pans type stuff

They were in my case. Wriggling in and around the dog food that had also spilled and smeared over the cupboard. Then these casings had dropped to the shelf below where I kept a box of important paperwork that I binned in a panic. And then later retrieved when I realised it also contained birth certificates, passports etc. I had to sift through the entire box, piece by piece, and spray each page with disinfectant and fly spray.

There are spotlights above, but nothing seems to have dropped. I'm panicking about where some horrible thing might be waiting for me. It's a very large modern kitchen, not many hidden corners or places to hide dead animals. We have no pets

could it be seeds from seeded loaf of bread ? Does anyone in the house use that surface to make sandwiches on ? (I often come down to the kitchen in the morning and find crumbs the kids have left after making late night snacks ?

Nothing for it but to sell the house. Or burn it down

Could they have come from something placed temporarily on the counter? A bag? Or maybe a box of groceries? Maybe something from a visitor who's own house is the source? The pupae can travel quite far from the original food source. In my case a couple of feet. But if I'd taken my box of documents to someone else's house definitely some of these cases would have fallen out. Try and think back what's been placed there, because you absolutely do not want to come across their maggotty siblings unwittingly.

You could pull out the spotlight bulb - as you'd do when changing it. But don't stand directly under it. If there are anymore up there they might fall/fly/wriggle out?

Arm yourself with fly spray first though

Are you in the UK? It seems too early for flies to be hatching. Have you noticed any flies buzzing around the kitchen?

I think these are old pupa cases that have fallen out of something else. Grim, but you probably don't need to burn the house down just yet.

That is definitely magot casings.

I may be wrong but think if they are empty you have passed thé magot phase and have the fled already. I may be wrong I don't pay huge attention but regularly get these around my/neighbours bin area. First there are maggots then these cars arrive with a swarm of flies

I second that these have maybe fallen out of something. A box from the garage/loft? Bag of flour? Bag of bird food balls? I'm sorry but you'll have to have a hunt around for the source of the disco rice 🤢

No idea, but I'd be burning the house down 😂😂

I wasn't far off. Can you tell from my slightly hysterical responses I'm still quite severely traumatised. Those photos brought it all back. Even the smell, and the feel of a maggot on my unwitting finger 🤮

Have you found the source @holidayers?

Or have they taken you and wrapped you into your own pupae?

I haven't found the source 😭Like someone has suggested I'm hoping it's from a long time ago. It's just four of them and there's no other debris or yucky stuff around so I'm hoping it's all long gone 😥

I've disposed of them. Ugh. Hoping that's the end of it but if I find them or they kill me I'll come and update in the former case.

@SonyaBoot haha. Sorry typing with a toddler in arms 😂

You say kitchen counter but I can't figure out what it's taken on?

Looks like a slice of bread or an old carpet?

It's a speckled cream granite worktop

Yes correct. All the bits on it, the black, the reddish etc are the design, not anything fallen there.

Update in next post.