What's going on with flies?

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Iwannaplato
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Iwannaplato »

Harbal wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:05 am
Iwannaplato wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:57 am
My father would never kill spiders. He would always gently move them outside.
So do I, and I always start out by attempting to do that with flies.
I try to get flies to find the outside. I'm not being compassionate, or if it's compassion it's physical, unconscious. I just hate the experience of crushing a fly. Mosquitoes, get no pass. I could probably waterboard a flea.
Last edited by Iwannaplato on Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dontaskme
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Dontaskme »

Harbal wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:22 am
When a fly gets in your house, and is constanty landing on the edge of your plate while you are eating, it is very difficult to feel goodwill towards it. But, that aside, I greatly admire flies. Their speed and agility is remarkable. They strike me as being examples of excellent natural engineering.
Yes they are remarkable. They are the cleaner upper of debris left behind from the rotting carcasses of dead animals and humans.

Flies are ancient creatures that appeared on Earth during the Permian period, over 250 million years ago.

I was just thinking, and saying the exact same thing only the other week about how flies are able to get through the tiniest of openings, but seem incapable of exiting through same entrance. I reckon that same thought has crossed the minds of thousands of people.

The flies annoy me, when they are in the house too...But I've got patio doors in my living room, so I can open them to full capacity to allow the fly out. I sometimes have to coax the more stubborn flies out, and do so by waving a tea-towel up and down like some crazy steward at the grand prix.


I'd never kill a fly, or a spider either.
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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Iwannaplato wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:43 am
Harbal wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:05 am
Iwannaplato wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:57 am
My father would never kill spiders. He would always gently move them outside.
So do I, and I always start out by attempting to do that with flies.
I try to get flies to find the outside. I'm not being compassionate, or if it's compassion it's physical, unconscious. I just hate the experience of crushing a fly. Mosquitoes, get no pass. I could probably waterboard a flea.
Birth of a mosquito:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZljvWRJIU
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Harbal
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Harbal »

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:43 am Of course, I would never let anyone see the secret 'fly dance' (except the fly). They might have me committed :lol:'
What I wouldn't give to see it. :)
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Harbal
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Harbal »

Dontaskme wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:48 am I sometimes have to coax the more stubborn flies out, and do so by waving a tea-towel up and down like some crazy steward at the grand prix.
Another one with their own version of the fly dance. :)
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Dontaskme »

Harbal wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:00 am
Dontaskme wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:48 am I sometimes have to coax the more stubborn flies out, and do so by waving a tea-towel up and down like some crazy steward at the grand prix.
Another one with their own version of the fly dance. :)
Did you ever watch the series ''Breaking Bad'' ? ...there was a fly scene in that drama series, it was so crazy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHPFfqZjuDU

At least there are advantages to being small. Be small, be smart, be a fly! :lol:

I've always wanted to fly..that's it, I'm coming back as a fly, a million flies can't be wrong, lets all eat shit, since there's nothing else worth living for. :mrgreen:
Iwannaplato
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Iwannaplato »

The Fly has a very soft, fleshy, spongelike mouth and when it lands on you and touches your skin, it won’t bite, it will suck up secretions on the skin. It is interested in sweat, proteins, carbohydrates, salts, sugars and other chemicals and pieces of dead skin that keep flaking off.
and, in general, here's some of the why it lands on you and what it does.....
o Oil is an important food for flies. Oily hair is an attractant.
o Less hairy skin gives the fly spaces to vomit. A fly vomits on solid food to liquefy it. The house flies taste with their feet so if there is food on the skin, and space to liquefy it, they will land there.
o They are attracted to carbon dioxide which human beings breathe out.
o They are attracted to the heat of the warm body, to sweat and salt, and the more the person sweats the more flies they attract.
o Flies feed on dead cells and open wounds.
o Some of the body odours are more attractive to flies than others. This is apart from the quantity of carbon dioxide that is emitted.
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by commonsense »

Harbal wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:06 pm Why are flies able to detect a gap in a slightly open window when they are on the outside of it, but not able to recognise the gap in a fully open one when they are on the inside? A fly inside your house will tend to be drawn towards a window, but if you open the window, the fly will invariably shun it.

There is something supernatural about flies. If you try to swat one with something -usually a rubber glove, in my case- the fly will instantly de-materealise and reconstitute itself on the far side of the room. It is similar to Captain Kirk beaming from the Enterprise down to the surface of a planet, except the fly does it a thousand times faster. Why on earth did nature equip the fly with this amazing skill only for it to spend its life dashing itself against closed windows, and ignoring open ones?

What is it with fucking flies?
What you didn’t know is that there’s always a secret fly inside your home. That fly shouts directions to all the unwitting flies outside directing them to enter. But for most flies these directions fall on deaf antennae. So a few get in, but they are not secret flies, so they must use their wits to avoid fly swatters and the like. No fly has any inkling of how to get out without directions from a fly that did it before. But the outside flies that got out from the inside (by chance, since no one gave them directions) are too consumed by shite and sugar to be bothered with talking to the inside flies. That’s why you’ll notice that flies inside your house may approach a window but often become confused when they are so close to making their way back out. This also explains cats.
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by commonsense »

attofishpi wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:42 am
Harbal wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:50 pm
uwot wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:36 pm Well, it's a bit like vampires, but exactly opposite. They can only go through a door you don't invite them to use.
Yes, I can see that is just how a fly would think.

That's excellent, uwot, I wish I'd thought of it. :)
U have no idea what a fly is mate!

In Osstraaaalllliiiaaaa you have to surrender your steak sandwich or hand over one of your kids.

..and don't get me started on the cockroaches. This is a true story, I had heard that in QLD cockroaches can fly. Well, one morning I awoke and on the wall next to my bedside table was a bloooody huuuge cockroach. I layed there staring at the blighter for about a minute, thinking, do I get up and take this ****er on or just go back to sleep.
Well, I decided f**k him, I'm going back to sleep. But no, he had other ideas, he jumped off of the wall and flew...HE FLEW straight bang wallop into my big nose! ...and God rest his soul, I never saw him again.

That reminds me. PC keyboards - they sometimes get a right bashing from me. I swear the ones at my old workplace were unbreakable.
One drunken night I smashed my keyboard in my study so hard most of the keys flew all over the place.
Well, have a guess which key to this day I still have not found?
Is it x? Or z?
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by attofishpi »

It was the largest key on the keyboard - the space bar - vanished into another spatial dimension!
Dimebag
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Dimebag »

attofishpi wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:42 am
Harbal wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:50 pm
uwot wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:36 pm Well, it's a bit like vampires, but exactly opposite. They can only go through a door you don't invite them to use.
Yes, I can see that is just how a fly would think.

That's excellent, uwot, I wish I'd thought of it. :)
U have no idea what a fly is mate!

In Osstraaaalllliiiaaaa you have to surrender your steak sandwich or hand over one of your kids.

..and don't get me started on the cockroaches. This is a true story, I had heard that in QLD cockroaches can fly. Well, one morning I awoke and on the wall next to my bedside table was a bloooody huuuge cockroach. I layed there staring at the blighter for about a minute, thinking, do I get up and take this ****er on or just go back to sleep.
Well, I decided f**k him, I'm going back to sleep. But no, he had other ideas, he jumped off of the wall and flew...HE FLEW straight bang wallop into my big nose! ...and God rest his soul, I never saw him again.

That reminds me. PC keyboards - they sometimes get a right bashing from me. I swear the ones at my old workplace were unbreakable.
One drunken night I smashed my keyboard in my study so hard most of the keys flew all over the place.
Well, have a guess which key to this day I still have not found?
I once had a kookaburra swoop down and snatch a snag right from my tongs.
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by attofishpi »

Dimebag wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:57 am I once had a kookaburra swoop down and snatch a snag right from my tongs.
:lol:

It appears Kookaburras will eat pretty much anything. As far as I am aware they are classified as a kingfisher, but there's not much around my area for them by way of fish. The creek is flowing currently, but I don't think there are fish in there - although yabbies a plenty - and frogs.
I love the sound kookaburras make. Also the magpies make a beautiful sound - beyond that (in my area) the birds - crows and cockys just squeel a nasty screech!! I do miss the beautiful song of the English birds in the New Forest.
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

Harbal wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:06 pm Why are flies able to detect a gap in a slightly open window when they are on the outside of it, but not able to recognise the gap in a fully open one when they are on the inside? A fly inside your house will tend to be drawn towards a window, but if you open the window, the fly will invariably shun it.

There is something supernatural about flies. If you try to swat one with something -usually a rubber glove, in my case- the fly will instantly de-materealise and reconstitute itself on the far side of the room. It is similar to Captain Kirk beaming from the Enterprise down to the surface of a planet, except the fly does it a thousand times faster. Why on earth did nature equip the fly with this amazing skill only for it to spend its life dashing itself against closed windows, and ignoring open ones?

What is it with fucking flies?
I believe this is a common trait of the selfish genes, i.e. the drive to reproduce optimally.

To reproduce optimally the host must survive thus the need for food.

Research has shown that flies can detect food as far as 7 km away. :shock:
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/arti ... smell-food
As such if you have any thing that is potential food for flies they will slip through any possible gap [emitting the molecules of the food] they can get to it.

A fly is "confident" it can escape potential dangers with its flying and swerving abilities. An open window will not a threat to the fly as such it is indifferent to it since the fly can confidently avoid dangers from humans and they can easily get out through the open window [maybe they can detect the state of 'outside' and inside]. I have loads of experiences with flies escaping through narrow gaps.

Unfortunately flies do not have a gene to deal with the modern plastic fly-swatter and I have a lot of success with that [striking them when they land on something].
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Re: What's going on with flies?

Post by Skip »

Harbal wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:06 pm Why are flies able to detect a gap in a slightly open window when they are on the outside of it, but not able to recognise the gap in a fully open one when they are on the inside?
They can't recognize the small gap as a gap. They come in either by accident or drawn by the smell of food. There is far more likely to be food inside the house than outside, except for the garbage cans. If you want to make sure they don't come in, place a garbage can ten feet outside of each window and keep them well stocked with table scraps.
And they can recognize an open window if they have some motivation to go toward it (light, usually) and none to avoid it: wind blowing in, smell of food inside, none outside, disturbance by human standing between to open the window, etc.
They have rather small brains, so can't keep a lot of information in play at any given time.
There is something supernatural about flies.
Well, they don't have gold-plated toilets, trophy wives or face-lifts - they got to have something.
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