Got maggots? These doctors are bringing the bugs into their practice on purpose

Health newsGot maggots? These doctors are bringing the bugs into their practice on purposeMaggots can remove dead flesh from a wound with a degree of precision surgeons can’t achieve. That can make them an asset for certain patients.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00The thinking behind maggot therapy is straightforward: Dying tissue must be removed from wounds in order to prevent infection. To maggots, this dead tissue is food.Leila Register / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 17, 2026, 8:00 AM EDTBy Mustafa FattahThe lowly maggot gets a bad rap, mostly known for feeding on corpses and rotting meat. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.But modern medicine is giving its reputation new life — as a tiny surgeon.Polly Cleveland, of New York City, turned to so-called maggot therapy when she was caring for her late husband, Tom, in 2023.“After a stay in the hospital, he came back with this terrible sore on his left heel,” Cleveland said. Later, he developed a bedsore on his buttocks. “These kinds of wounds really smell foul.”The doctors and nurses treating her husband had never heard of using maggots for wound cleaning. Cleveland, who has a lifelong interest in bugs, found a lab established by Dr. Ronald Sherman, a pioneer of modern maggot therapy, and was able to order a shipment of maggots overnight.Polly Cleveland and her late husband, Tom Haines.Courtesy Polly Cleveland Medicinal maggots are considered FDA-cleared medical devices, which are specially raised in laboratories to be germ-free. Maggots are the larvae of flies.“You get this little vial with these teeny, tiny little maggots on a piece of gauze,” Cleveland said. (The maggots can also be sold in a sachet resembling a tea bag, so they can’t wander freely.) “I stuck the maggots in, and by golly, they did their thing.”The wounds, she said, had been “so icky,” with “pus and other nasty stuff coming out of them.” Onc...