Squirming hairy tailed creatures found crawling across a mother’s kitchen floor have been dubbed as something out of a ‘horror movie’.

Even insect experts were unable to determine what the bizarre-looking animals were.

Tim Clerke, from Auckland, New Zealand, was baffled when he found them but needed help to identify what exactly they were – so he shared a clip on Facebook.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

But instead of coming to his help, his friends simply told him the creatures in his video – with squirming bodies – were terrifying.


‘My mother found these on the kitchen floor this morning. One is still alive,’ Tim said.



‘Anyone know what they are? Nikki is horrified and will have nightmares for weeks.’

‘[It’s] like someone cut the bottom end off of baby mice,’ one person noted.

‘That is like a horror movie,’ a second wrote.

It’s still not been confirmed what the creatures found in Tim’s mum’s kitchen were (Picture: Tim Clarke)

Another friend said: ‘I’d like to believe it was a hoax, then I could sleep better.’

other guesses included ‘deformed baby mice’ or ‘miniature bats’.

The Biosecurity New Zealand entomology team eventually watched the video but still couldn’t come to a conclusive decision on what the strange animals were.

Toothbrush removed from man's stomach after he swallowed it while brushing

They thought the footage showed the detached legs of a moth.

A spokesperson said: ‘They suggest something [possibly a cat] had just recently eaten the body of the moth, which may explain why a few of the legs were still twitching.’

Experts from the University of Auckland had an entirely different theory and said the video was a hoax.

But Eric Edwards, an insect expert, said it was possible the unknown specimens could be hoverfly larvae – commonly known as rat-tailed maggots.

The mystery continues.

What is a rat-tailed maggot? Rat-tailed maggots are the larvae of certain species of hoverflies. A characteristic feature of rat-tailed maggots is a tube-like tail which acts as a snorkel, allowing the larva to breathe air while under water. It lives in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water, and can be found in damp places such as drains or toilets. They can grow up to 15cm in length including their tails – but the average length is only 2-3cm. The most commonly encountered rat-tailed maggots are the larvae of the drone fly.

Got a story for Metro.co.uk? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.