Fly Facts: From Horseflies to Fruit Flies

By Jerry Schleicher
Published on October 5, 2010
article image
by iStockphoto.com/Stijn Peeters
Green bottle flies, like most blowflies, occasionally pollinate flowers, especially those with putrid scents.

What are flies good for? Considering a few fly facts, these pesky pests offer a fascinating, albeit odious, view of the insect world.

Wouldn’t harm a fly, huh?! Bet you would if you knew just how unpleasant these insect pests can be. Like mailboxes and roadside weeds, flies come with the territory when you live in the country. And if you have livestock around, your odds of encountering them increase sharply. You can swat at ’em, spray ’em, chase ’em out of the house or hang pest strips in the barn, but you’ll never get rid of ’em. So, from horseflies to fruit flies, you might as well learn a few fly facts and learn to coexist.

Ever wonder why it’s so difficult to hit a fly with a swatter? It’s their incredible eyesight. Flies have compound eyes containing more than 4,000 photo receptors, or lenses, in each eye, allowing them to see in almost any direction at once. Couple that with their ability to switch flying directions in midair, and your poor batting average begins to make sense.

Entomologists say more than 18,000 fly species are found in North America, with 120,000 species worldwide. They divide flies into five groups, including biting flies, filth flies, small flies, overwintering flies and gnats.

Horse Fly Facts

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