Flies and Rats:

A Field Guide to Disgusting Pests Great and Small

The House Fly

House Fly Pearls Adults are about ¼ inches in length and

have narrowly spaced red-brown eyes. Females are larger, 1/2 -3/4 inches and

have widely spaced red-brown eyes. Spongy—non-biting—mouthparts Dull gray body with four stripes on

length of thorax

More Pearls Females live 3-4 weeks Each female can lay 5-6 broods of 75-

100 whitish, oval eggs, usually in a nutrient-rich environment such as garbage.

Larval stage (i.e., maggot) occurs within 12-24 hours

Pupal stage may take another week

The Happy Couple Assume a mean temperature of 65o (F)

Assume two blissfully happy house flies. Assume a very Un-Darwinian world in

which the contented couple copulates copiously without the usual worry of predators who’ll spoil their fiesta de amor .

Be “fruitfly” and Multiply

If all the offspring survive, then our initial happy couple with the prodigious procreative predilection of their progeny, could produce theoretically a lineage of 191,010,000,000,000,000,000 (191 quintillion, 10 quadrillion) strong.

Tread Lightly If one assumes that an average house

fly occupies 1/8 cubic inches, then our happy couple would:

Cover the entire planet and Cover it to a depth of about 47 feet

Good and Bad News

Environmental factors tend to limit fly populations. Bury the dead, dispose of garbage, keep the privy door shut, don’t live adjacent to a farm, etc.

They regurgitate into the food they eat

Blow Flies

Characteristics Larger than common house flies Often have metallic colors Adults make a loud, droning sound Attracted to garbage, flesh (dead and

dying), dog droppings, etc. Flight range is between 3 and 10 miles

Flesh Fly

Charcteristics Adults look like large house flies Notable Differences: 3 stripes on the

thorax and a checkerboard pattern on the abdomen

Females deposit live maggots (not eggs) on decaying flesh and excrement (especially dog stools)

Rodentry 101

The Skinny