Flies had laid their eggs on the wounds and the eggs hatched and the maggots were feeding on the wound. It was found that in general maggot infected wounds did better than maggot free wounds. The maggots ate the dead wound tissue not the living tissue. The wounds also appeared cleaner with less bacterial infection. It is thought that purification of these substances will lead to a new range of powerful new antibiotics.
Insects have a different immune system to mammals.
Insects have a group of peptides in their blood that kill bacteria by a method that differs from the killing method of penicillin. These peptides have been purified and injected into bacteria-infected mice. These mice lived whilst control infected mice that did not receive these peptides died. The peptides will also prove a new line of bacteria killers.