If bugs get in and eat decomposing animals, what stops bugs from getting in and eating animals while they’re still alive?
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Most bugs don’t burrow into living flesh. But a few do, and can absolutely eat parts of a living animal. One you’re almost certainly familiar with is the mosquito, but various insect parasites have historically been a big problem for humans and other animals until their eradication or control in most of the developed world. In the developing world, they still are, and insects like the botfly or worms like the [Guinea worm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis) cause painful diseases.
The others are attracted to *decaying* flesh, which has already been broken down somewhat by cell death and the action of bacteria and fungi. That doesn’t usually happen while an animal is alive because (a) animals will actively move away from or brush off insects trying to eat them, (b) their immune systems are protecting them from bacterial or fungal growth, and (c) their cells are alive. (Immune systems do also fight larger parasites, though they’re less effective at it.) But even then, there are exceptions, and living animals like leeches are sometimes used in medicine even today to clean out necrotic (=dead) tissues from wounds.
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