Fly Facts

• They have even been taken aboard the space shuttle into outer space, usually on purpose.
• In all, there are over 120,000 species of fly ranging in length from a few millimetres to well over 300mm.
• One of the things that separate flies (Diptera) from other flying insects are their wings.
  Flies are the only insects which have only two. All other insects have four.
• The fly’s reputation for uncleanliness is also well deserved.
  Many of man’s primary diseases are transmitted by flies, including the deadly Yellow Fever.
  Entomologists Dr. Yao and Dr. Yuan of China studied more than 378,046 common house flies and estimated that each carried no less than 1,941,000 bacteria on their bodies.
  Indeed flies are probably responsible for more deaths among humans than any self-inflicted atrocities.
• Flies do not bite or sting or jump up and down when angry.
  They have neither teeth nor a stinger.
  They thrust a needle-like spike into their victims and inject a powerful digestive juice that breaks down the victim’s cell tissue.
  They then ingest it by sucking up the liquid, as humans drink milkshakes, only less noisily.
• But don’t think flies are helpless and otherwise benign to their larger neighbours.
  In 1923, Black flies in swarms were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 sheep, horses and cattle in Rumania and Bulgaria.