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When the warm days of spring and then summer comes, so come some of the most beautiful creatures on Earth. Flowers blossom and fill prairies and fields with color and joy; fruit ripens on trees, bringing luscious juices to our tables and palate; berries pop out among the leaves of bushes, to make our strolls in the countryside more pleasurable and fresh.
There are birds like finches and sparrows singing in the trees and dancing in the air; frogs fill pools and ponds with tadpoles, then sing all night with crickets hiding in the fields. Dragonflies seem to skate on the water of rivers and lakes, like athletes of refined perfection; squirrels and rabbits amaze many a child with their beauty and dexterity, stopping and running like the wind; then, who has not stopped to wonder at the delicate flight of butterflies who skip from flower to flower, while bees buzz laden with sweet pollen?
All this is the idyll that spring and summer bring to our lives, year after year like an appointment never missed with Nature. But while the fields and forests fill with these beautiful creatures, pantries, kitchens and rubbish bins fill with another form of life, a bit unassuming, mostly hardly noticed by humans, but still, quite fascinating (if ticklish when they come to take a walk on your skin…)
Who are these humble inhabitants of our summer days? Little flies, warbling in the air and around food for most of the hot days.
Some people may find them annoying, and they have a point, especially if there are many of them (which happens in countries like Australia, but also in cow stables and other places where animal heat and excrement are plenty).
In some countries, like some in Africa, they can even spell disease; in fact, flies are responsible for spreading some nasty infections, but mostly, flies are totally innocuous and the only inconvenience they cause is that they tend to stick around when they eye some food. So, what do flies eat? We will get to this point in a second, but first, you may want to know some amazing facts (or trivia, as some may say) about our flying friends.
Some Facts about Flies
Most people think about flies as blackish insects, often with fluff on their bodies. In fact, this is not the case; anyone who has managed to look at the common bluebottle close by will have been amazed at the shining colors of this beautiful creature.
However, even the green bottle has colors to live you stunned with their beauty; a bit like some beetles, although they are mainly – as their name suggests – green, you can literally see a rainbow every time you look at them. What few people know is that some flies have incredibly colorful eyes; ok, they are not easy to see in detail, but trust me, they do! Some flies even copy the colors of wasps and bees, so that predators may confuse them for their cousins.
When we say “fly”, we do not mean a single animal. In fact, there are a whopping 125,000 species of flies, which can be found on every continent of the world.
So, really, there is no such thing as “the fly”. The smallest fly is only 0.4 mm (barely visible to the naked eye) and it is called with the Latin name Euryplatea nanaknihali, but the biggest one is almost 200 times bigger, and it grows to be a massive 7 cm long, that’s half the palm of your hand, and its name is Gauromydas heros.
Flies are also different from most other insects because they have a single pair of wings. However, their flying skills are impressive! You may have seen them perform 90 degree turns in the air, which is something no airplane we know of can do and almost defies the laws of physics; this is because they have two special sensors, called halters, which can detect their rotational movements when flying. They are very, very special animals indeed!
So, how do these underrated wonders of Nature live? What do they eat? How do they drink? We will come to this promptly – just read on!
Fly Diet
What do flies eat? You must have seen them buzzing around all sorts of food, and that may give you a clue. While if we take all flies as a whole we may even assert that they are omnivores, which means that they eat both vegetable matter and meat, the reality is that not all flies are like that. In fact, some do, while others specialize in different types of food.
Let us start, for example, with fruit flies; they are so-called because they are seen around rotting fruit; however, it would be wrong to say that they eat fruit. A contradiction? Well, no! They are not there for some strange and unfathomable reason… They in fact eat the yeast produced by rotting fruit.
Blowflies, on the other hand, prefer a diet of meat. In particular, if you were to give them some fresh meat straight from your local butcher’s of choice and some stinky old leftover from weeks ago, they would go for the latter. Yes, they like the rotting flesh of dead animals, and in doing so, they contribute enormously to the ecosystem, by being at the forefront of the decomposition and recycling of matter to then become living again.
So, although they are tiny and may not look much, they are as necessary to the world as the most beautiful birds or mammals.
Cluster flies, which are very common in people’s homes, have a diet that covers the full range of what you may be eating at home; everything you leave half-consumed or unattended may spell a delicious meal for them. So, look out for all your dirty plates, cups, and even glasses and bottles to keep them away.
Do flies eat excrement? This is something many people may want to know. The answer is yes. Some flies may eat excrement as well. Ok, even some dogs do, so, it does not seem to be such an unheard-of feat in the natural world. However, what to us may look like a disgusting thing is actually a very, very important (fundamental, I would say) process in Nature.
In the end, if there were no animals and plants (or fungi) ready to decompose feces, they would stay there forever, and over the year, you could imagine what a foul-smelling planet we would be living in. So, the fact that flies eat them gives them a special role as hygiene operators of the natural world, and, if we ever realize that dust collectors are actually more important than politicians, we may all be living in a better world…
However, without entering into the detail of what each flies eat (and considering that most flies are pretty adaptable in their choice of food, which may be the reason why we can find loads of them a bit everywhere) , here is a list of things flies seem to prefer when it comes to filling their little bellies:
- Leftover food, especially if it has been lying around for some time.
- Rubbish and garbage, yet again, if it has been left to rot, especially on warm days.
- Decaying organic matter (like leaves, wood, fibres etc.)
- Fermenting food and material (fermentation is the process that turns sugar into alcohol, thus, if you leave fruit etc. lying around, as soon as it gets that acidic taste, it will attract flies).
- Dead flesh (especially as it starts to decompose).
- Excrement, both human and animal.
- Sugary beverages and preserves.
- Alcoholic beverages.
Seeing that they seem to have a taste for almost everything which is going off, your best chance to keep them away from your home is to clear and rinse plates, cutlery, bottles, cans, tins, bottles, glasses and other food containers straight after you have used them.
The more you leave them lying around, the more the food in them will start smelling and it will attract flies.
Fly Hydration – What Do They Drink?
Like all animals, flies receive water also from eating; especially when eating things like fruit and vegetables, they will, together with the nutrients, also introduce this essential molecule into their system.
However, flies also drink, and they do it quite liberally, meaning that they do not seem to bother too much about what type of drinks they will take.
A weird thing is that flies will only drink water if they have been without it for at least six hours. Some animals drink it more, some less. Flies seem to prefer to have their intake of water together with other nutrients.
So, while they may snub your glass of water left on the table, they will be partial to sugary drinks and soda drinks, alcoholic beverages, juicy rotting fruit, coffee, milk, the juices from food (whether animal or vegetable, including blood) and, of course, as we all know, even salty (or sweet) sweat; that is why sometimes we find them crawling on us, and they sometimes do insist on staying a bit, as we all can tell from experience!
Finally…
I hope this small flight into the world of flies has been both enjoyable and informative; these unassuming insects are not just phenomenal in many ways, but, thanks to their feeding and drinking habits, they are also very adaptable and they are an absolute asset for the balance and proper functioning of the ecosystem.
So, next time you see one, stop to think about what an infested and fouls smelling planet we would be living on without them…
