Funky Fly Facts--What You Didn't Want to Know!

"No Fly Zone"

The Fly
The Fly "Musca domestica Portrait" by JJ Harrison (jjharrison89@facebook.com) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 1.0 via Wikimedia Commons

• True flies are insects that belong to the order Diptera (originating from Greek di=two, and ptera=wing)
• True flies are the only insects with two wings; all others have four
• True flies are written as two words, for example “house fly,” as opposed to “dragonfly”
• There are over 120 thousand different species of true flies known to man
• Some flies can lay up to 3 thousand eggs in their lifetime
• Flies can beat their wings 200 times every second
• Flies can travel up to 300 times the length of their body in one second. A plane traveling at the speed of sound only travels 100 times its length
• 14 cows were introduced into Australia in 1788. The descendants of these cows have multiplied to over 20 million. With each cow generating up to 12 pads a day and an estimated 2,000 flies emerging from each pad, it isn’t any wonder that Australia is dealing with fly problems

House Fly

House Fly

• Female house flies may produce more than 150 eggs with each cycle and go through several cycles over the course of a few days
• Fly larva may hatch from the eggs within 24 hours
• Flies can begin reproducing 36 hours after exiting the pupa (where transformation from a maggot to a fly occurs)
• Without any natural predators, the offspring of two flies would cover the earth 8 feet deep within a year
• The life span of a house fly is approximately 21 days
• Flies do not grow; they are full size at birth. A fly that is small is not still growing, but didn't consume as much food in its larva stage
• The average house fly carries 2 million bacteria on its tiny body. Think about that next time one is swarming around your dinner
• The female fly normally lays eggs on its food
• Flies poop every couple of minutes
• The foot of a house fly is 10 thousand times more sensitive to sugar than your tongue. They also use their feet to taste food
• They do not have teeth; therefore, they can only eat liquefied foods
• Flies have a straw-like suction tool called a proboscis that they use to slurp up meals
  Maggots Cleaning a Wound
  "Maggots". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
• Flies vomit up digestive enzymes from their stomach contents to break down solid food so it may be liquefied enough for consumption through their straw-like mouths
• House fly maggots consume dead flesh and rotting trash
• Scientists have never been successful in teaching anything to the fly. In fact, it is believed that the fly is possibly the only insect that cannot learn
• It takes 20 thousand watts of energy to run a car 40 mph. A fly produces one-tenth of a milliwatt, therefore, it would take 200 million trained flies to pull a car at a constant speed of 40 mph
• It would take almost 5 million flies to lift a 110 pound human
• The common house fly can fly up to 6 thousand feet high on a hot day
• House Flies can move as fast as five miles per hour
• A house fly's eye contains 4,000 lenses

If you are trying to find a way to get rid of these pesky critters or you are just tired of that one fly that constantly swarms around your face throughout the day, here are some non-chemical products to help you: Rescue!® Disposable Fly Traps and Trap N' Toss™ Disposable Fly Trap.

Bot Fly

Bot Fly
"Cephenemya stimulator" by Karsten Heinrich (& G. Kothe-Heinrich) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

• The bot fly is most definitely one of the scariest insects in the world; it is a fat, 1-inch long, hairy, big eyed beast known for digging into the flesh of its victims
• There are numerous different species of bot flies, each named after the particular animal that they so gruesomely attack... there is the horse stomach bot fly, the sheep bot fly, deer bot fly, and ohhhh yesss....even the HUMAN BOT FLY!!
• The horse bot fly lays its eggs in the grass and on the coat of the horse. These eggs are 1 millimeter in length, and look like yellow specks of paint
• The horse licks and ingests these nits (bot fly eggs), and they hatch into tiny maggots and live out their larva stage inside the horse
• At this point the larva burrows into the mouth, tongue, and latches onto the inner linings of the horse's stomach, feeding on its insides and gorging itself on the walls of the host's internal organs until it grows into a plump half inch long maggot
  Bot Fly Larva
  "Magendassel". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• When the "bot" has developed enough, it releases itself from the horse and escapes through the bowels, and resides in the animal's feces until it transforms into an adult bot fly
• The sheep bot fly on the other hand, shoots its eggs into the eyes of sheep
• The eggs then hatch and the bot fly larva exits and crawls behind the eye where they proceed to eat on the tissue and ligaments located behind the eye
• These tiny larva grow fairly large and continue to burrow deeper into the head
• There have been several instances throughout the world in which a sheep bot fly has mistaken a human as its target,and dropped its eggs into the eyes of people. In this case the fly eats away at the muscles that control the eye, and without prompt medical attention it can result in the loss of eyesight
• The human bot fly is found in South America
• The human bot fly targets cattle, dogs, and also (given by the name) humans
• It can lay its eggs on the skin of its target or lay its eggs on other vectors such as horseflies or mosquitoes. When these particular vectors extract warm blood from the victim, the bot fly eggs hatch and the larva falls off onto the skin of the animal. The tiny larva burrows into the host's skin and feeds on its flesh. The larva grows fat and has a sharp vertebrae that induces severe pain. When the "bot" grows in size, it produces a large lump in the skin and can be felt moving under the flesh

If your animals are battling with these brutal parasites, you can help protect them with these simple solutions: Pyranha Equine Spray & Wipe, Jeffers® Ivermectin, and the Roma Bot Knife.

Horse Fly

• There are about 3 thousand different known species of horse flies
• Horse flies are one of the largest true flies in the world
• They may get as large as an inch and a half
• The horse fly has saw-like jaws they use to cut through the skin of its prey
• It would take 25 horseflies approximately 6 uninterrupted hours to drain a pint of blood from a victim
• Even in its larva stage, the horse fly is a predatory insect that eats other insects and larva
• Horse flies lay their eggs on vegetation around a water source. When the larva hatches from the egg, it will mature for 2 years in damp areas around this source of water
• Horse flies can bite through fabric clothing
• The horse fly only lives as an adult for a few days before it dies

Gnat

• Name used in referring to any small black fly that targets the face and eyes
• There are over 1,400 known species of gnats
• Most species of gnats feed on plants, while other species can be carnivorous
• Gnats' lifespan is approximately 5 days