How Can Bugs Help Solve Murders?

weapons or tools did they use. With a vast background of science, including biology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, and math, trained specialists can look at the fragments of evidence left over from a crime and with care and precision, construct a legitimate story. They might use anything left of the crime scene, including shards of broken glass, clumps of dirt, drops of

bodily fluids, and other trace elements. But one on or around a victim's body that gets a lot of attention during an investigation is actually a living organism, and it usually comes after a crime is committed. We're talking about insects. Bugs can tell us a lot about a death and reveal details about a crime. Today we're looking at the

field a forensic etomology. Forensic etymology is the use of insect evidence in both criminal and civil cases, and it can help police and criminal investigators learn a great deal about what happened to a body. That's because, just as flies will flock to a piece of food left out on a table, necrophilis insects or bugs that eat dead flesh are often associated with human corpses. The major criminal field of forensic anomology is known as medico legal anomology.

It's also known as forensic medical anomology or medico criminal anomology because of its focus on violent crime. People working in this field usually attempt to determine several important things, but the keys are often the post mortem interval or the estimated time of human death, and the location of

the death. These scientists may be called in on legal cases involving mysterious sudden death where foul play is suspected, traffic accidents with no apparent cause of crimes where insects were introduced to a victim to cause harm, or even less messy cases of insect damage to property or infestation in food. But today we're talking about those messy cases. Bugs will arrive very quickly to the orifices of a deceased human body, such as the eyes, nose, ears and mouth.

Most insects can locate the smell of dead flesh within a matter of hours after expiration as it starts to decompose, and some insects, known as carrion insects, live their entire lives feeding on dead flesh in order to fuel their life cycle and create the generation of bugs. Adult carryon insects mature and capable of flight will seek out the nearest dead body to lay their eggs inside. After all,

it's got all the nutrientsa growing bug needs. There are generally three stages an insect goes through during the part of its lifetime that occurs inside of a dead body. The first stage is the egg stage, where the insects are still enclosed within their eggs. The second stage is the larva stage, where the small, wiggly wormlike larvae that have just hatched grow by feeding upon the dead flesh.

And the final stage is the pupa stage, which is an intermediate stage that comes before the insect turns into a winged adult and flies away. If an enomologist collects insects from a corpse during any one of these stages, egg, larva, or pupa, and if they understand the life cycle of that type of insect, they can determine a fairly accurate time of death. In other words, the enemal just needs

to understand two basic facts. How long after death the insect eggs are generally laid, plus the amount of time it takes for the insects to develop. These two facts should give them a good idea of how long a person has been dead. Many kinds of bugs may flock to a decomposing body, but the most common kinds are flies and beetles. Flies, like blowflies, can fine dead flesh within minutes. A fly larva, commonly known as maggots, do the majority of the eating and are responsible for much

of a corpse's decay. Beetles, on the other hand, will typically move in once a corpse has dried out a When collecting insects, investigators try to locate the largest specimens. The oldest bugs should give the best post mortem interval to preserve the insects. Samples taken from the body are placed in containers filled with seventy percent isoprople alcohol, the same strength as the rubbing alcohol solution you can buy

the store. The containers are labeled with the date and time of the collection and the part of the body from which the insects were taken. Then the investigator either delivers the specimens directly to a specialist or mails the containers expressly for examination. In a perfect situation, insects can

prove an easy tool for uncovering the unknown. For instance, if a person dies of natural causes in a room where the temperature has remained constant, and the coroner wants to know the time of death, the entomologist simply looks at the bugs around the corpse and reports the details. It's almost never that easy, though. Investigators need to take into account a large number of variables when collecting specimens. The temperature of the surrounding area, for example, determines how

quickly larvae will grow in corpse. Oh when a person is murdered during the summer months and left outside for several days, the ambient temperature surrounding the corpse can change dramatically. Certain types of blowflies develop faster during hot weather and slower when it's cooler. A bus found on a body that's been outside for weeks or even months showed drastic variations in insect growth cycles, and an anomologist needs to

carefully observe the available specimens to determine a likely range. Meanwhile, although many of the modern advancements in forensic science were made in the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds, perhaps the first documented account of forensic etymology comes from the twelve hundreds, a Chinese book from that period called The Washing Away of Wrongs, where counts a murder in a

small village where the victim was badly cut. The local death investigator asked around, but after several questions and few answers, he decided to have each villager bring out their sickle and lay it across the ground. Eventually, flies swarmed over one sickle, and, most likely because its owner failed to wash away microscopic bits of blood or tissue from the blade, the killer confessed and the first known case of forensic anomology was closed. Today's episode is based on the article

what do bugs have to do with Forensic Science? On how Stuffworks dot Com written by John Fuller. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,