We live in a heavily wooded area and in the last week there have been a lot of small white worm type creatures covering our drive way. They resemble a piece of rice so I am wondering if they could be maggots. At first I thought maybe they were from my garbage man as he drives across our drive way, but they are on things that are higher up in the air and on areas where he does not drive. I am baffled and disgusted. My question is do maggots fall out of trees and if so are they harmful to the multiple children that play out on my driveway everyday. The idea is just disgusting me so what can I do to alleviate this problem? I appreciate your advice and response and hope to hear from you soon as we normally go outside everyday and I am afraid that this issue is going to keep us

Greetings Kim,

Without additional information, pictures, and samples, it is difficult to provide you a definitive answer to your question. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably have some oak and hickory trees around your house...correct? Maggots are actually the larval stage of the Order Diptera (flies), so I don't believe you have maggots on your driveway (you could, but bear with me). I think you might have the larval stage of the Genus Curculio & Conotrachelus, which are commonly associated with acorns (oaks) and hickory nuts (hickory), respectively. To the best of my knowledge, neither Curculio nor Conotrachelus feed on human flesh :-) Let the wildlife enjoy an easy meal or else sweep/vacuum this small and harmless nuisance off of your driveway.

If you are truly concerned and require a positive ID, please take a larva or two to your nearest Univ. of Illinois Extension office for identification.

I have experienced the same thing in my yard here in Tx. After a hard rain last week, I noticed stuff falling from my Elm and Oak trees. I assumed it was pollen. I had to go into town later on and when getting in my truck I noticed the windshirld was covered in this pollen, but on further investigation I saw that thety were very tiny maggot looking things, smaller than a grain of rice, like you said. I had an older friend tell me that they were army worms, but from what pics I have seen on the internet, I dont think thats what thry are. I too am concerned about them. Are they going to eat my trees or my lawn up?

Hi Steve:

Fortunately, you have arguably one of the most extensive state/university forestry systems in the United States: the Texas A&M Forest Service.

They should easily be able to assist you with the identification of these unknown insects

http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/main/article.aspx?ctrl=20