What do flies eat? A variety of treats for dipterans

Classification

Annoying insects can live both in nature, obtaining their own food, or settle closer to human habitation and use those products that people forget to remove or throw away.
Let's consider what flies eat, and what groups are divided into in science depending on the organization of nutrition. The information is presented in the table. Classification of flies

Most often in houses and apartments you can find house flies and house flies, but autumn flies and some other species often fly in as well.

Lifestyle

The housefly is, of course, a subspecies of the common wild fly, which over time became so addicted to, albeit unsafe, but such comfortable and fertile cohabitation with humans, that it spontaneously branched off from its native taxon and formed a new one. This is how house flies appeared - regulars in kitchens, balconies, verandas and rooms.

These insects live mainly in those houses and apartments where there is always something to eat. They are attracted by the smells of something edible, especially rotten fruits, vegetables, and meat products. They have a licking-sucking apparatus, so they do not pose any danger to humans in terms of bite.

The fly is an exclusively diurnal insect. At night they see almost nothing and therefore sleep. During the day they are tireless in their activity.

House flies reproduce very quickly and easily, and can create a considerable problem for a careless owner, under favorable conditions, causing a real invasion. After all, flies appear in the home environment most often under conditions of “sanitary liberalism” on the part of the owners, this should not be forgotten.

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In this case, you have to take measures to reduce the number of bred flies to at least an acceptable minimum, but that’s a slightly different story. By the way, about the lifespan of house flies. It ranges from two weeks to a month. If no one tries to shorten the fly’s lifespan, the lifespan of the annoying parasite largely depends on the temperature parameters of its habitat.

house fly

These insects are omnivores, so feeding is not a problem for them. How do such insects feed?

• Taste buds are located on the legs, thanks to which the fly tastes the selected food.
• They suck up food using a special forked proboscis tongue, which simultaneously softens it.
• The food then enters the digestive system.
• Due to the lack of teeth, they prefer liquid food.

What do house flies eat? Some of their favorite treats include:

• Sweet tea.
• Juices and lemonades.
• Fruit juices.
• Jam, jam.
• Honey.

Often these insects are interested in solid food, but it needs to be abundantly moistened with saliva, so most often the fly will choose a sweet liquid. However, if necessary, insects will feed on fresh or rotting fruits and vegetables.

Habitat

Having appeared in regions with temperate climates, houseflies now live in all countries of the world.

Both types of houseflies are very active indoors. Small house flies easily tolerate cool climates and are often found in poultry houses. Both species prefer warm climates, where they can easily find spoiled food and lay eggs on it. In cooler conditions, flies struggle to survive and become less active, which leads to a decrease in their reproduction rate.

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Housefly

What does a housefly eat as a larva? During this period, her food is sewage. To develop, the larvae need protein, so they prefer to feed on decaying meat or fish.

Adult insects can sometimes find food by smell or see something tasty with their compound eyes, but more often they discover food by accident. So, crawling along the surface of the table, a dipteran can “stumble upon” a drop of jam, which will become food. Unlike bees, a well-fed fly will not call on its relatives, preferring to feed alone.

Onion hoverfly: how to get rid of it

Onion hoverfly
Of all the varieties of syrphids, onion hoverfly is one of the pests of garden plants. Its larvae consume the pulp of vegetable and flower crops: onions and garlic, tulips and gladioli, hyacinths and daffodils. Damaged plants usually rot and die.

Therefore, all bulbous plantings must be carefully inspected for the presence of pests and special measures must be taken to get rid of flies:

1. Damaged plants should be immediately removed from the ground and burned.
2. Treat the beds with insecticidal preparations Aktara, Decis, Agita, etc.
3. Change the planting location of such flower crops every year.
4. Plant carrots in the beds, because their smell can repel onion hoverflies and flies.
5. Treat the beds with ammonia according to the same recipe as for onion flies.
6. It is good to loosen and mulch the soil to prevent compaction - this measure helps prevent the appearance of syrphids.
7. To prevent the appearance of female onion hoverflies, it is recommended to treat the plantings with tobacco powder, ash, red pepper or mothballs.
8. After harvesting beds with onions or garlic, it is recommended to treat the soil with copper sulfate.

Other species of Diptera

What a fly eats and its favorite delicacies depends on the specific species. For example:

• Drosophila feed on rotten fruits and lay eggs in them.
• Fruits are found in those apartments where sour foods are found. These are small midges that reproduce very quickly. They can also grow in baskets where onions, carrots, and other vegetables are stored.
• Carrion eats decaying food.

Thus, the question of what a fly eats cannot be answered unambiguously; it all depends on the specific species.

Nutrition of larvae

Food preferences also depend on the species. House fly larvae eat the juices of rotten plants, vegetables, fruits, excrement, and food waste. The female lays her eggs in a place where the larvae can immediately find food.

Blowfly larvae develop in meat, fish, and offal. They play a major role in the decomposition of corpses. They go through several stages of development, each time increasing in size. They grow rapidly, increasing in size from 1 mm to a centimeter in 3 days. They can live in damaged tissues of living animals, making numerous passages.

On a note!

Some species of blowfly larvae eat their own kind. By the time of appearance on corpses, experts determine the exact date of death of an animal or person. The method is used in forensics.

Food for larvae

Some interesting facts

Among these insects there are many species with unusual feeding preferences. Let's look at what flies eat in natural conditions:

• There is a special type, cheese flies, that can breed and feed inside the cheese wheel. They are called pyophilides.
• The striped yellow-and-black syrphid, or hoverfly, a wasp-like dipteran, eats flower nectar.
• The larvae of hover flies are distinguished by an enviable appetite: during their development to an adult, each of them eats more than 2 thousand aphids.
• The dangerous Tsetse fly prefers the blood of wild animals, cattle, and people as food. The bite of this African resident can cause incurable diseases of the nervous system and immunity.

Among the flies there are also real predators, for example, ktyri, owners of a sharp poisonous sting. Their food includes mosquitoes, midges, even bees and flies. Interestingly, some types of flies are cultivated by fishing fans. Thus, the blue spring fly is specially bred on bird droppings, pig manure, its food is rotting organic remains, and the insects are also fed with sugar and dry milk.

Biology of hoverflies

Hoverflies, due to the peculiarities of their evolution and similarity with wasps, have spread over most of the globe. They are found everywhere except hot deserts, tundras and, of course, Antarctica. Entomologists count about 6 thousand species of these insects, of which more than 1.5 thousand are found in the Palearctic, 800 in Russia, and 2 species were found even in the subarctic zone.

Although the bee fly is similar to wasps and bees, it is absolutely harmless. Below are the signs by which the hoverfly can be distinguished from dangerous insects:

• Syrphid flies are dipterous insects, so the presence of only one pair of wings is the first difference from bees, which have four wings.
• The fly's wings are larger and wider.
• The ability to “hover” in the air and suddenly change direction of flight. This happens thanks to the halteres - a reduced pair of wings.
• A fly has thinner limbs than a bee, and plant pollen does not accumulate on them.
• There are no hard hairs on the body of the hoverfly, but there is fine fluff, like a bumblebee.
• Wasps are non-social insects. Individual individuals live on their own and group only during the mating period.

A few days later, leech-like larvae up to 1 cm long emerge from the eggs. They have a greenish, pale yellow or pinkish tint. The larvae feed and grow for about a month, after which they pupate. At the end of July - beginning of September, adult flies emerge and lay eggs again. The second generation develops to the pupal stage and goes to winter.

Nutrition

The diet of adult hoverflies, like bees, consists of flower nectar and pollen. Therefore, insects can be found near the flowers of fruit trees, berry bushes and in the garden near umbrella plants.

The larvae, depending on the species, differ in the way they feed. Among them there are vegetarians, predators and saprophages that eat decaying remains. Adherents of plant foods gnaw the stems and bulbs of lilies. Aquatic types of flies dive to the bottom of reservoirs and eat the dendrite. Some exotic representatives of hoverflies will not refuse to feast on dung and decaying wood, while others live in symbiosis with ants, feeding on their reserves.

Predatory larvae are the worst enemies of spider mites, aphids and other small insects, eating not only adults, but also their eggs. It is interesting to watch the larvae hunt for aphids. The leech-like larva crawls along the stems, and when it finds an aphid, it stops and raises the front part of its body (like a snake), swings and attacks its prey.

Lifespan

We looked at what the Drosophila fly and some other species of these dipterans feed on. Let's find out how long they live and whether they can live without food.

The average lifespan of fruit flies under favorable conditions is short, only 10-20 days. However, if the temperature is up to +18 °C, and there is a lot of food, pests can live for more than 2.5 months. Diptera are almost never left without food, since they find food everywhere both in human homes and in nature. If necessary, they can eat food in garbage dumps and landfills. In winter, the insect goes into suspended animation and can survive without food until the first warm days. It should be remembered that newly awakened flies are very lethargic and it will not be difficult to kill them.

In forests, dipterans have a lot of natural enemies (birds, frogs, spiders), so they rarely survive more than 10 days.

We looked at what flies eat and were convinced that these creatures are able to survive almost anywhere, since they are not picky about food.

Mimicry

As already mentioned, syrphids are very similar in appearance to stinging insects - wasps, bees, bumblebees. The hoverflies seem to be camouflaged as them, and their striped black and yellow coloring helps them in this. But upon closer examination, you can notice the difference:

• syrphids have much shorter antennae (for example, a wasp has antennae up to 1 cm);
• they are smaller than wasps, bees, etc. (excluding especially large species);
• they have 1 pair of wings, while the stinging ones have 2.

Nature has endowed these flies with such a coloring, thanks to which they may not be afraid of attacks from enemies. Hence several more popular names for hoverflies: bee-eater, wasp-fly, wasp fly, etc.

In the summer, gardeners can encounter many insects on their plots, and sometimes, when they see a fly with a characteristic black and yellow color that makes a specific buzzing sound, they may mistake it for a bee or.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ar6bIxQyaf9W8cYJ_I55w

In fact, this is not so: the hoverfly, unlike bees, is a dipteran species and leads a completely different way of life. The peculiarity of these creatures is that some species can be malicious pests for cultivated plants, while others can be assistants in the destruction of other pests.

Facultative myiases

Green and blue blowflies usually lay eggs in animal carcasses and meat waste, house flies and house flies in human excrement, rotting plant matter, manure, gray blowfly in feces, and sometimes in human food. Flies can also lay eggs and larvae in human wounds, noses and festering ears. Typically, the larvae do not cause harm and even promote wound healing by eating pus and secreting bactericidal substances. At one time, the so-called surgical fly larvae (Calliphora and others) were used in the treatment of wounds and osteomyelitis. However, with larvae taken from their natural habitat, the causative agents of tetanus and gas gangrene are sometimes introduced into wounds. Subsequently, they began to obtain sterile larvae of blue blowflies. Nowadays, these treatment methods are not used in surgical practice, and larvae that have entered the human body are removed with tweezers or rinsing.

Purchased funds

Electric fly swatters kill flies at the slightest touch; just touch an insect and it will die: no dirty marks on your favorite wallpaper. What else can you buy to combat dipteran arthropods?

Traps

The simplest fly trap you can buy in a store is sticky tape. This is a strip covered with an adhesive composition that attracts flies with its smell. The device is produced by the brands Fumitox, Raptor, Aeroxon, Clean House and other manufacturers. There are also more “advanced” commercial fly traps:

• window - envelopes that are placed in the corners of windows and filled with flies;
• electric - they look like fans that “suck in” flies flying by;
• ultraviolet - the light attracts flies, they stick to the adhesive composition and die from an electrical discharge.

Technological advances have made it possible to use ultrasound in insect control. The device produces ultrasonic waves that are imperceptible to humans, but unbearable to flies: dipterans try to stay away from the source of the uncomfortable “noise.”

Fumigators

Fumigators are devices that destroy insects by poisoning arthropods with vapors or gases. In apartment conditions, two types of devices are used to control flies.

1. Electric. A small device that connects to the mains and heats a plate treated with an insecticide or a liquid toxic to insects.
2. Aquafumigator. A container containing substances toxic to insects is placed in a small bath filled with water. The poisons released are destructive to flies: penetrating through the shell, they paralyze the insect. Processing time is two hours; during this period, all household members must leave the apartment.

There is also a pyrotechnic fumigator. It is a spiral made of a porous flammable mass impregnated with an insecticide (a composition harmful to insects, including flies). After ignition, the composition begins to smolder, releasing smoke that is poisonous to dipterans. Such devices cannot be used in an apartment due to the high fire hazard.

Sprays and aerosols

Such preparations are easy to use: you need to close all doors and windows, spray the product for 10-15 seconds, leave the room and after 30 minutes ventilate the room for half an hour. Under no circumstances should the drug come into contact with food, household items, furniture, and especially children’s things. The table below will give you an idea of ​​the range of products.

Table - Overview of fly sprays and aerosols

While processing the premises, you should not smoke, eat or drink, and it is also important to take other precautions to avoid poisoning.

• Prepare the room. Remove food, cages with animals, take out or close aquariums, there should be no people or pets in the room.
• Check action. Before spraying the product on any surface, you need to test the reaction on a small area.
• Remember fire safety. Do not spray near hot objects or open flames.
• Protect skin and mucous membranes. When working with products, wear a respirator, goggles, rubber gloves and clothing that covers the body. After handling, wash your hands with soap and take a shower.
• Do the cleaning. After treatment, wash all surfaces with a solution of laundry soap and then with clean water.

If the product gets into your eyes or skin, rinse with plenty of running water and then consult a doctor.

Powders and granules

Powders are scattered in places where flies congregate; granules can be used in two ways: stir in water and treat the surfaces on which flies land with the solution, or spread dry in the same way as powder.

The products are also toxic to humans, so it is not recommended to use them in a home where there are children and animals. When working with drugs, wear rubber gloves, special clothing and a respirator.

Judging by the reviews, the most effective are powders and granules produced under the brands: “Bayt Mukha”, “Clean House”, Baygon.

Insecticidal baits can come in sticker form, such as Ortho Home Defense Fly Killer Window Decal. The principle of action is similar - the insect eats the poisonous composition and dies.

Growing in maggots

The value of fly larvae is their high content of useful microelements, in particular protein. It is especially good to use such bait for catching crucian carp, perch, carp, large roach, rudd, and bream. The main thing is that the bait on the hook looks natural, wriggles and exudes a characteristic smell that underwater inhabitants like so much.

Baby flies - larvae or maggots - will successfully and quickly clean not only wounds. Its small “swallows” help get rid of trophic ulcers and bedsores. The fact is recognized by traditional therapy.

Whoever learns for the first time about such an unconventional method as cleansing wounds from pus and quickly restoring the skin should take the information into account.

What do fly larvae eat? Only decomposing meat products. If you give them your problem, they will be happy to clean up infected wounds. Destroy areas affected by necrosis. And they will not show any interest in healthy tissues.

But in clinics in Britain and Germany, treatment with maggots is successfully used. This is evidenced by the number of patients (from 25,000 to 30,000) per year.

Immediately after infection with myiasis, a person may not feel anything - usually, when laying eggs, insects secrete a special substance with anesthetic properties into the wound so that the victim does not notice the bite. Then, at the site where the egg was implanted, swelling appears, and the person begins to experience itching. As the parasite develops and advances, other symptoms appear:

• pain;
• feeling that there is movement under the skin;
• formation of fistulas on the skin;
• discharge of fluid or pus from the fistula;
• increased body temperature;
• chills, muscle aches;
• nausea, vomiting;
• in some cases - loss of consciousness.

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Only a doctor should remove fly larvae. To clarify the diagnosis of myiasis, an ultrasound or x-ray examination of the affected areas is performed, and discharge from the bite sites is sent for laboratory testing. The diagnosis can also be made based on a serological blood test - when infected, the amount of antibodies in the blood changes.

Parasites that live in the superficial layers of the skin are removed using tweezers after local anesthesia; if the parasites are deeply embedded, a surgical operation is performed. Some larvae that parasitize in the upper layers of the skin come out on their own after applying an airtight patch to the skin - the larva, deprived of full breathing, crawls out and is easily removed with tweezers.

Follow good hygiene rules to prevent myiasis

After removing all parasites, it is necessary to carry out specific drug treatment. The doctor may prescribe internal antibacterial agents; ointments with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory components are used externally for tissue healing.

The most common varieties

Gray

It has a large body 10–14 mm in length, with red eyes on its white-yellow head. The head is divided in half by a black stripe; on the chest there are light stripes located longitudinally.

The segmented abdomen of the gray blowfly has an oblong shape, the legs are very densely covered with short hairs.

Blue

The body reaches a length of 10–16 mm, has a blue color with a faint light coating.

The head is yellowish-red, shimmering with a golden sheen.

There are dark whiskers on the cheeks.

The breast is black with a bluish tint.

On the back are faint longitudinal black stripes.

Distributed in all forest regions of Russia.

Green

The body size is 5–10 mm in length.

The body color is green with a metallic sheen.

The abdomen has a faint coating of light shades.

The wings are transparent, the tentacles are yellowish, and the legs are black.

This species is very thermophilic and is found in central Russia only in hot summers.

It mainly lives in semi-desert, desert and steppe areas.