what's the average lifetime of a fly? [Update: RIP]

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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:52 am

Last weekend, a fly of average size made it through the - whatever you call that thing in English that's hanging in front of the door to stop insects - and has been pestering me since. The first few days I thought it would go away, but it's a stayer, buzzing around my head, trying to steal my food, scaring the cat when I try to kill it or wave it away (cat is kind of the nervous type, but too lazy to catch it anyway).

I'm just thinking, why doesn't the bloody thing just creep in a corner behind the curtains and die? How long do I have to wait if I don't want to go the chemical way?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:59 am

wokabo wrote:

Last weekend, a fly of average size made it through the - whatever you call that thing in English that's hanging in front of the door to stop insects -..

It's called a fly excluder. Laughing

Tommo's top tip (I've started using the 3rd person again...which is worrying) is to open a large window and stand next to it admiring the view. The fly is attracted to you and then just wave it out of the window. It works. Failing that DDT is quite effective, or if you can't get that, Agent Orange.

I had a spider in my toilet (Boris) not so long ago who I got quite attached to before he went to the great web in the sky. Maybe you could get a spider to swallow the fly? Very Happy

However, the knock on effect could be worrying...

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:03 am

Catching flies with your hands is a good exercise for a vast number of exciting video games.

On a sidenote: People keep telling me that hornets only live for 1 year and they usually come in groups. Well, one single solitary hornet is living in a tiny hole on the outside wall of my house for 7 years now. Occasionally it will fly in through the open window, have a good look around and then bugger off. Always just 1 hornet, always the same hole, for 7 consecutive years now. Of course I have no way of knowing whether it's always the same hornet but we've kind of grown attached to each other after all those years. I bet not many people have a pet hornet. Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Quote:

The average life span of an adult housefly is from 20 to 30 days.
Occasionally, one may survive freezing weather if hidden away in a
warm building but most of the parents of each year's crop spend the
winter as maggots or pupae buried in stable litter or under piles of
rotting grass.

Source: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/400-499/nb453.htm

I suggest this,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyswatter Wink

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:16 am

^^ Yikes! 20 to 30 days? In that case I may call mr. Bayer for assistance.
Although I like the idea of the fly gun on the Wiki page too.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Well, remember source, I referenced the "Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Illinois)"

They are probably not the "Stephen Hawking" of the fly world.

**Waits for someone to ask "Who is Stephen Hawking" Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:37 am

Pastor Frank wrote:

**Waits for someone to ask "Who is Stephen Hawking" Evil or Very Mad

Prof. Stephen Hawking is very much like making love to a beautiful woman...you start with a big bang and then everything expands, until complete darkness eventually reigns. Crying or Very sad

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:40 am

Pastor Frank wrote:

**Waits for someone to ask "Who is Stephen Hawking" Evil or Very Mad

Are we back to this whole Carl Sagan in joke again are we? Wink

Pet hornets, pet flies, you guys have it lucky. I wake up every morning to find several wasps dying in my bathroom and spare bedroom.
The exterminator can't find where they're coming from.... but I tell you this: Pet wasps are something I can do without. Especially half a dozen new ones every day. Crying or Very sad

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:01 am

wokabo wrote:

Last weekend, a fly of average size ...

Are you talking about one housefly? Musca domestica? Just *one*?
German wiki says

Quote:

Die Stubenfliege lebt 16 bis 24 Tage, Weibchen leben meistens etwas l�nger als die M�nnchen.

.

So you first will have to check whether it's a male or a female. Then ask Mr Bayer for help.
Or buy a Dionaea muscipula.

Or - if you ever will come here - do visit me and you can get a lot of practice how to get rid of flies.

Edit:
Or try this one: http://www.e-klatsch.de/
It will improve your tennis skills, too.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:06 am

Tommo Shanter wrote:

Failing that DDT is quite effective, or if you can't get that, Agent Orange.

I hope wokabo doesn't have any plants in the house.
Or are you talking about them: http://www.agentorange.net/. That would make it clear. Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Quote:

Are we back to this whole Carl Sagan in joke again are we? Wink

Don diagnosed my affliction here.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=120737

I apologize.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:53 am

There are two or three threads here that need a fly swatter. Razz

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:01 am

Don wrote:

On a sidenote: People keep telling me that hornets only live for 1 year and they usually come in groups. Well, one single solitary hornet is living in a tiny hole on the outside wall of my house for 7 years now. Occasionally it will fly in through the open window, have a good look around and then bugger off. Always just 1 hornet, always the same hole, for 7 consecutive years now. Of course I have no way of knowing whether it's always the same hornet but we've kind of grown attached to each other after all those years. I bet not many people have a pet hornet. Smile

Mmm I wonder if he's typing away on his wee keyboard in there;

On a sidenote; Hornets keep telling me people only live for one year and they usually come in groups. Well, one single solitary people has been living in a big box on the inside wall of my house for seven years now. Occasionally it will walk out of a big hole, have a good look around and then bugger offf. Always just one people, always the same big hole, for 7 consecutive years now. Of course I have no way of knowing if whether it's always the same people but we've kind of grown attached to each other after all these years. I bet not many Hornets have a pet people.

B-S

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:41 pm

@ Don, I occasionally have Hornets fly over my house.
I'm glad they don't come in,
As they are of the F/A-18 kind Wink

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:23 pm

Quote:

what's the average lifetime of a fly?

That depends on how often you have to take a leak. Wink

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:05 pm

just an update: The fly unfortunately (for the fly at least) got stuck somehow between the window and a magazine. It didn't survive.

Strangely enough, I felt a bit guilty. For a minute or 2.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:10 pm

Only six to go for your new title:
The gallant tailor (Seven at one blow)

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:43 am

Quote:

I wake up every morning to find several wasps dying in my bathroom and spare bedroom.

@ Mugatu - did the exterminator check in any remote roof spaces that are maybe too difficult to see into ? I had the same problem, half a dozen wasps every day in my spare bedroom, and eventually discovered a nest of horrific proportions in the roof. Looked like something out of your worst nightmare, a huge elongated and distorted brain about 18 inches deep and eight inches across. Shocked

They left after one year and it is still hanging there ready to scare the living daylights out of whoever buys this house eventually.

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 2:04 am

Isn't the thing on the door called a "Screen"? Is it a mesh like thing with little holes in it?

Anyway, I have a disgusting story too.

The night before last, my cat was acting strangely by my computer. She wouldn't leave and kept jumping behind it and just being silly as if she was trying to catch something.

I thought maybe one of her toys rolled back there.

No.

So I stopped trying to figure out what she was after.

Then she dove back there - wrestled around - and came out with something HUGE in her mouth.

It was MOVING and brown.

I was like - WTF?!

I screamed that scream that says there's a bug and I'm going to die.

My kid is in another room. He yells, "Hold on mom, and I'll kill it." (He knows this scream - LOL)

He comes with a shoe.

The object falls out of the cat's mouth and begins to scurry across the floor.

That's when I realize - it's a HUGE HUGE HUGE waterbug (COCKROACH)

The cat tackles it, gets it back in her mouth, and runs for the kitchen.

I scream to not let her eat it - I could just see my cat dying of some disease.

My son runs and makes the cat drop it again - then SMACK - SMACK - SMACK and a "hey mom, these things don't die too easily do they?" SMACK SMACK SMACK.

"Mom, I heard these things can live for two weeks without a head."

Me: "Flush the thing."

My son: "You want me to wash the floor, too? His guts are all over the place."

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:52 am

wokabo wrote:

It didn't survive.

Quote:

To digest their food, flies vomit on it. They can carry up to 6,000,000 bacteria on their feet and go back and forth between filth and food. They adapt rapidly to human environments. Musca domestica (the house fly) lays 600 to 1000 eggs in two months. About twelve generations of flies are produced a year.

If a fly lands on your food it could leave behind excrement, vomit, bacteria and germs which can cause food poisoning and other major health risks.

** ACCOUNT CLOSED ** Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 766

"That's good eatin'!"

--J.D.

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