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 whitish, oval eggs, usually in a nutrient-rich environment such as garbage.  Larval stage (i.e., maggot) occurs within hours  Pupal stage may take another week

The Happy Couple  Assume a mean temperature of 65 o (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