By Pat Kite
I hate flies! I especially hate the fly that has been hovering over my head for the last 15 minutes. I have chased it with a flyswatter, sprayed it with kitchen cleaner, and insulted its ancestry. If flies could laugh, this one is laughing. Right now, it is sitting on top of my computer monitor, waiting for nasty words or a swatter whack. Then it goes and sits on my head.
There are about 110,000 fly species or types. When I go into my kitchen, a fly will be sitting on my toaster. I have five fly swatters. All are on the other side of the room. I fetch the red one. The toaster fly has moved to a plant. I know it hates me. I open the window to let it escape. Another fly enters. They dance under a ceiling light. Then one goes to my bedroom and waits until I am about to fall asleep. The other housefly checks out its buddy in the computer room.
A female fly can produce 500 eggs within a week. Each egg will hatch in about four days. More rumpy pumpy, during a fly’s lifespan of 20 days. Did you know there were girl flies and boy flies? Enthused housefly males begin their romance by bumping into a female. The females are apparently satisfied by this romantic gesture and go about being preggers. The males check out all available females, bump bump. How do you differentiate the boys from the girls? Easy-peasy. The female has a larger space between her red eyes. Males have longer legs. Perhaps, when you have nothing better to do, you can check this out.
Sometimes, when you are staring at a housefly, you see it rubbing its legs. Houseflies have food tasting parts on their legs. This allows them to identify what they are eating or slurping. Flies aren’t the most fastidious critters. (They eat dead and rotting things, plus poop, with apparent glee). However, they do make attempts at keeping tidy. You see this leg rubbing? Yes, fly is cleansing so it can better taste its next meal.
I am certain there are many positive things about houseflies. Poet Ogden Nash wrote, in 1942, “God in His wisdom made the fly. And then forgot to tell us why.”
