Flies can be a big nuisance for most of us, their buzzing in addition to distracting us makes us nervous, for the industry, especially the food industry, they are a great constant concern due to the risk they represent for their products.
Although they are fascinating creatures, their breeding, feeding and even mobility habits differ from ours and can be quite interesting (at least for pest controllers!).
Interesting facts about flies
1. Houseflies live on a liquid diet.
True, flies tend to survive on liquid diets, why? Well, that’s what their morphology dictates, they just don’t have the necessary vocal parts to chew food, so they have to eat while drinking.
How do flies eat?
The house fly practically vomits digestive juices onto solid food, these juices are able to dissolve its saucer into small pieces allowing it to now use its mouth to ingest food, a process called “proboscis”.
2. They can try their paws.
Just like butterflies, flies can taste their food using their feet!
This is because flies have taste buds on the last sections of their legs, so when a fly lands on a tasty dish, which can range from animal feces to your lunch, before they’ve eaten anything, they fly up and step on everything to see. what they like.
3. Flies poop… a lot
They also don’t care where they make it! As you know, flies have to live on a liquid diet, due to this, their digestive system moves very quickly, which leads us to defecate very frequently, as it has been observed that houseflies defecate every time they land, even Which are in your next food to consume!
4. They can spread a number of diseases.
Due to their feeding and mating habits (more on that shortly), houseflies come into contact with a wide range of harmful bacteria, including Salmonella and E.coli, which is why houseflies help spread disease caused by these dangerous bacteria, contaminating things like our food. and kitchen utensils.
5. They can walk upside down.
I think you already knew this, the anatomy of the housefly allows it to walk and climb on any surface, be it horizontal, vertical and even top to bottom. This is because each of your legs contains two fatty pads called puvilles which contain very small bellies that produce a sticky substance made of sugars and oils that give them perfect adhesion to any surface.
6. Flies can see backwards.
That’s right, the house fly can see behind it at all times, because of its amazing eyes. Unlike us, the fly has compound eyes, which allow it to have a 360º field of vision. Unlike our vision, flies’ eyes don’t move, so being able to look in all directions allows them to navigate while also taking care of risky situations.
7. The life of the fly is not that long.
On average, the life cycle of a house fly is about thirty days, which means they don’t live very long.
However, in their short life, just do a lot, a housefly can produce up to 500 eggs in their lifetime, in quantities of 75 to 150. So even if they don’t live very long, they can grow exponentially and quickly become an infestation after a few generations.
8. Exceptional reaction time.
Ever wonder why it’s so hard to catch a fly? This has to do with its very quick reaction capacity and its great agility. Flies are able to process what they see and react to it incredibly quickly, to put it in perspective: our brains process around 60 images per second, while a fly can process up to 250 per second.
9. Habits of unhealthy reproduction.
Flies aren’t really fans of going to the hospital to give birth, and their preferred method is pretty gross. Flies leave their bones in the feces, rotten peels or rotten fruit. Why? because it is to provide some food to the larvae when they hatch.
10. Male flies are constantly looking for “a date”.
Do you remember from point 6. we talked about the fly’s compound eyes? Well, they also play a role in your flies’ quests to mate. There are studies that show a specific region in the eyes of the male called “cupid’s spot” that is used to detect and chase female flies. This point is on the dorsal front region of their eyes, which is normally used to detect small movements, however flies also use it to latch on to potential mates during their aerial pursuits.