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HOW LONG DO HOUSE FLIES LIVE

With the exception of Antarctica, house flies are found everywhere humans are. House flies are one of the most annoying pests around. When spring comes around they rear their pesky heads again.

House flies have gray bodies. They have one pair of transparent wings. The head is dominated by their eyes which are made up of thousands of hexagonal lenses. This enables them to identify colors and gives them 360 degrees field of vision. They see four times faster than we do, so whatever you are doing is in slow motion to them. They are unable to see at night. They have three pairs of legs which are equipped with sticky pads and sharp claws at the tip. That is why house flies can climb and walk on all surfaces.

House flies don’t seem to do well in the wild. They live in close proximity to people feeding off their waste and foods. They transmit a lot of infections that are harmful to people

Breeding

Two to three days after they are born house flies are ready to breed. They will lay a clutch of 100 to 150 eggs at a go in garbage, organic waste and spoiled food which will be food for the larvae when the eggs hatch. They are prolific breeders laying eggs 6 to 7 times in their lifespan. The eggs can’t be seen with the naked eye, they are very tiny. They hatch within a day and the larvae emerge. They are voracious eaters and in one week will increase in size by about 800 times. The larvae turns into pupa and in a week metamorphosizes emerging as an adult house fly. It takes 12 to 14 days to develop from egg to adult.

For the first 3 days the fly crawls while waiting for its wings to strengthen. At this stage it can procreate.

House fly lifespan

Do house flies live for 24 hours? That’s a myth. Typically the female house fly lives for around 25 days, males will live for around 15 days depending on the availability of food, the temperature and region among other variable factors. Generally in warmer temperatures house flies develop faster and in cooler temperatures will develop more slowly extending the life cycle a little.

Flies will eat just about any organic waste or food. They like sugary drinks and sweet liquid foods they can suck. To eat solid food they spit on it  to liquefy it. Flies rub their legs to clean them of debris and then clean their eyes and wings.

House flies carry disease causing bacteria which they spread by crawling on food and depositing the bacteria that cause diseases like dysentery, cholera and anthrax.

Getting  rid of house flies

There are plenty of ways to get rid of flies. There is always the simple and trusty fly swatter. This is very satisfying when the swatter comes into contact with the fly. But is rather messy and will take quite a while to hunt and kill them.

Adhesive tape emits a smell that attracts flies and they get stuck upon landing on it. It is very easy to use. Just unroll and hang it then go about your business let it catch the flies for you.

Conclusion

If the house flies overwhelm you reach out to a pest control professional to deal effectively with this problem.