Flies what exactly is the harm in them?

There are over 100,000 species of flies in the world today ranging in size from very tiny 1mm to a chunky 10mm. Flies all belong to the same group of insects called Diptera which means two wings. Although you can only see one pair of wings, the other pair is still there but has evolved into a form of gyroscope which allows the fly to change direction rapidly. These gyroscopes are called haltares.

Flies are notorious carriers of disease such as salmonella, campylobacter, and typhoid to name a few. As there are so many species, I will in this article talk about the common and lesser common house flies. They pick up these diseases as they travel from filth to food and back to filth. Once a fly lands on your food this is a short scenario of what happens.

The fly will land on your plate and as it's "taste buds" are in its feet it will stomp around tasting your food. Then as flies cannot chew they have to liquefy your food. They do this by vomiting an enzyme over the food which they then stamp in . This enzyme breaks down your food to a liquid consistency which they then suck up. Sound gross right? But that’s not the end, while feeding, it is likely that the fly will then defecate on the food before flying away.

Now you know this does it make you want to control them?

All flies undergo a 4 stage life cycle from egg to larvae to pupae to adult. The house fly will lay its eggs in damp or semi liquid putrefying material. In her life time she will lay around 750 eggs. The newly hatched larvae will tend to burrow into the food source they have been laid in and search for high temperatures.

An adult house fly may travel up to 5 miles in search of good breeding site and it's whole life cycle will be between 1 - 5 weeks long.

For effective fly control use an residual insecticide which can be wiped on to alighting surfaces then a power fogger to knock down any flying adults. As with all flies the key is increase housekeeping. Have a good look around for potential breeding site which may vary depending on the species of fly but all flies need a breeding site and if this is not found and eradicated then the flies are likely to return after a very short period of time.

An ultraviolet Electronic fly killer machine will attract the flies into the trap and zap them and fly screens on windows may offer some help but as I mentioned before only eradicating the breeding site will give you full control