Indoor flies are the most common insects, and, interestingly, they almost never occur in the wild. Everyone knows how they look, but not everyone is ready to answer the question of how many flies live.
Flies are found almost everywhere on Earth. They appeared on our planet a very long time ago. In China, a fly was found that lived, as scientists have determined, about 145 million years ago.
Before answering the question of how many flies live, we will consider them more carefully. How do they look externally? The body of an adult fly is about five to ten millimeters long, the color is most often gray, the abdomen is slightly yellow in color, and on the upper side of the chest there are several black stripes along the body. A closer look reveals that the body of the fly is covered with sparse, but rather long hairs. The eyes of the fly are large, facetted, their color is brown. The distance between the eyes of female flies is slightly larger than that of male flies. Small details of the eye of a fly are poorly distinguished, however, they can distinguish even the slightest blinks of light. Female flies are somewhat larger than male flies, but to identify this with the naked eye is rather difficult.
Indoor flies feed mainly on liquid food, although they also consume solid flies, but they first dissolve it with the help of saliva.
Flies are very prolific and breed rapidly. The female can lay about 100 eggs at a time, their size is approximately one millimeter in length. And how many flies live? Not for long, but during their short life, these dipterans lay a huge number of eggs, depending on the breeding conditions. They usually live near the place of breeding. Due to the effects of wind, they can spread over a fairly large distance. The main food for houseflies is food waste.
I must say that the housefly is a very dangerous insect, as it can carry a variety of infections, diseases, parasite eggs. Preventive measures must be taken: for example, it is impossible to store garbage, sewage and food waste in the open air. Often, special chemicals - insecticides - are used to kill flies. But in residential premises, such substances can not be used. Therefore, people use adhesive tapes and other lures, and also place protective nets on the windows through which not a single fly can fly into the living room.
So how many flies live ? It depends on the species, usually their life expectancy is from several days to two and a half months. On average, their life expectancy is approximately three weeks. The life span of a fly depends on air temperature. The most optimal temperature for these insects is room temperature (21-24 degrees Celsius). Under such conditions, the fly can live up to two months. However, the vast majority of these insects do not live up to the age of ten days, as they often become food for predators.
They compensate for their short lifespan by their huge ability to reproduce. One female in her short life can lay up to two thousand larvae, each of which develops twenty-five days, after which it becomes a chrysalis. Three days later, a fly is born from it, which, thirty-six hours after its birth, is already able to breed. It turns out that about twenty generations of flies can be replaced in a year.
The life span of a fly becomes longer if it hibernates in the winter. In this case, a fly in a state of suspended animation can overwinter, and when it becomes warm, having warmed up, it can come to life again. Moreover, not only adults can hibernate, but also larvae.