House Flies
What is a House Fly?
The common house fly dominates the household fly population. It is widely available all around the world, but especially popular in the USA. In addition to being a nuisance when they buzz around a house, house flies can also surprisingly spread disease. They live very brief lives but can swiftly reproduce in great numbers. Consequently this leads to significant populations if they are not properly detected and managed.
House Fly Identification
What Do House Flies Look Like?
Typically, house flies are gray in color and have four black stripes across their thorax. They reach maturity at a length of 1/4″ to 1/8″ (4 to 7.5 mm). They feature a single set of wings, a slightly hairy body, and crimson compound eyes with millions of lenses for enhanced vision. A male house fly will often be smaller than a female. Unlike other fly species, house flies lack both teeth and a stinger.
The eggs of houseflies look like little grains of rice. Sometimes, you can observe egg cases with pupating larvae creeping out. Maggots have a greasy look and a creamy coloration. Maggots transform into full-grown adult flies by going through a metamorphic process known as “pupation,” during which they develop a dark, hard outer shell, legs, and wings.
Signs of a House Fly Infestation
House flies themselves are usually the first indicator of an infestation. Pupating larvae can sometimes be observed creeping out of their egg cases. Additionally, house flies can be heard buzzing around the house as well as seen. The fluttering of their two wings creates a distinctive buzzing sound.
House Fly Prevention
How Do House Flies Get in the House?
House flies will take advantage of any openings in the building’s structure, such as shredded screens or holes in the weather stripping, to enter a residence. These insects may draw to a building by the air current and odors. House flies are drawn to air currents that come from buildings on chilly days and to the cooler air outside on hot days because they like temperatures about 83 degrees.
How to Get Rid of House Flies
House Fly Education
Threats Posed By House Flies
Even though they do not bite, house flies can spread over a hundred different diseases, such as salmonellosis, typhoid, and tuberculosis. House flies carry disease organisms to food surfaces when they land on them after feasting on garbage, dung, and other putrid materials. Furthermore, they are chronic defecators.
House Fly Habits and Habitat
A house fly’s development from egg to adult can take as little as six days, depending on environmental factors. Fertilized female house flies start the life cycle by laying eggs, which can be found on dung, carrion, or trash. She will have five or six pregnancies, each one producing a clutch of about a hundred eggs. Despite only mating once throughout their lifespan, female house flies can lay anywhere from 350 to 900 eggs.
White, 1.2-mm-long eggs hatch in 12 hours in warm conditions. Eggs hatch light-colored maggot-like larvae. These 3-9 mm legless larvae eat at the nest for 3-5 days. After this stage, larvae look for a dark, dry, cold spot to enter their pupal stage. Pupae develop legs and wings in three to six days to become adult house flies. Female house flies mature into fertile adults in just three days. A house fly dies 15 to 25 days after emerging from its cocoon.
During the day, house flies tend to concentrate indoors on flat surfaces like floors, walls, and ceilings. When outdoors, they prefer to congregate among vegetation, fence wires, trash cans, and the ground. House flies spend the night sleeping 5-15 feet above the ground, typically near food sources. They’re able to hibernate through the winter by staking out a safe spot in a corner or along a wall indoors.
Scientists have observed flies traveling up to 20 kilometers in search of food, but most stay within 1 to 2 miles of their birthplace. House flies cannot chew solid food, therefore they must subsist on liquids instead. Due to their sponge-like mouthparts, they often spit out or regurgitate solid foods. They eat with straw-like jaws. Flies devour trash, animal carcasses, and human food. Due to the smell, they’re lured to pet waste.
