Bug Facts - Flies
Physical
Characteristics
 The most common fly is the house fly.
It is black and about 1/4 inch long. Its body is covered
with fine hairs and bristles which readily pick up dirt
particles.
The length of time from egg to
adult for the housefly is from 1 to 6 weeks, depending
mainly on temperature. Other flies are similar.
In urban areas houseflies usually
are found in human, pet, or horse feces, and in
garbage.
There are three stages in the life
cycle of flies; egg, larvae, and adult.
Flies can live 2 to 3 days without
food.
Flies vomit on their food before
eating it so as to soften it. The house fly excretes and
regurgitates wherever it comes to rest.
The stable fly uses it's proboscis
to pierce the skin of it's host and suck blood. Stable flies
are more associated with non-human animal excrement, and
decaying seashore weeds.
Reproductive
Characteristics
The sex of a house fly can be
determined by the distance between their eyes. Female eyes
are wider. Also, the female is usually larger than the
male.
Female flies lay about 200 to 2,000
eggs per lifetime. The green bottle fly, however averages
2,000 to 3,000.
Flies lay their eggs in manure and
decayed vegetable matter. These are good places to start
when controlling them.
A female deposits 75 to 150 eggs
per batch. She may lay 5 to 6 batches at intervals of
several days between each batch.
Fly eggs are small... only about
1/25" long, white, and are laid in moist organic matter
where the larvae will live. The eggs usually hatch in less
than a day. Full grown larvae sometimes move to a nearby
drier place, or into the ground to pupae. The newly-emerged
adult, however, cannot fly until its wings have dried and
expanded, and during this time it sometimes is called a
"crawler".
The length of time from egg to
adult for the housefly is from 1 to 6 weeks, depending
mainly on temperature. Other flies are similar.
Fermenting, fresh horse manure is a
favorite breeding place of the house fly. This manure must
be less than one day old to be attractive to the egg laying
adult.
Disease Factors
Flies are a disease carrying
insect.
House flies have been shown to
carry typhoid fever, cholera, summer diarrhea, dysentery,
tuberculosis, anthrax, opthalmia as well as parasitic
worms.
Prevention &
Control
Flies are best controlled by
finding and discarding the material in which the eggs are
laid.
With Burge Pest Control's Residential Power Protection
Plan our expert technicians will advise you on how best to
maintain a fly free environment.
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