Talk:Housefly/Archive 1

Ingestion of eggs?

I've always heard that you should never eat food that a fly has had access to for more then a few minutes. That it only takes 2-3 minutes for a fly to dump eggs all over your food. I never found out what happens if you do eat fly eggs. Do you have a bad stomach ache when they hatch? I'm sure your stomach acids and/or you'd crap them out before any serious harm is done? Zarcath 15:01, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Need to correct common name usage of house fly...

First off I want to say that just because someone can find a resource that uses, for example, dragon fly instead of dragonfly or housefly instead of house fly doesn't mean that the incorrect uses (dragon fly and housefly) are somehow valid.

I would change every page, if I could do it on my own. I need help from all of the publishers to correct this problem and prevent future mistakes.

The incorrect spellings can stay as redirect pages. This way, if a novice searchs for "bot-fly or botfly" then they won't get a search error page. Only the correct version should be used, period.

Please read for back ground information on this topic: Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions

Common Name Status Table

Page	Status	Comment
bee fly	correct	bee fly - family Bombyliidae
black fly	correct	black fly - family Simuliidae
blow fly	wrong	blow-fly - family Calliphoridae
bot fly	wrong	botfly - family Oestridae
bottle fly	not sure	no page - family Calliphoridae - can use the blow fly page
cactus fly	N/A	no page - family Neriidae
crane fly	correct	crane fly - family Tipulidae - "crane-fly" found in content
dance fly	N/A	no page - family Empididae
deer fly	correct	deer fly - family Tabanidae
dog fly	not sure	no page - family Muscidae - can use stable fly page
flesh fly	wrong	flesh-fly - family Sarcophagidae
flower fly	wrong	flower-fly - family Syrphidae
flower-loving fly	N/A	no page - family Apioceridae
grass fly	not sure	no page - family Asilidae - can use robber fly page
horse fly	wrong	Horse-fly - family Tabanidae
house fly	wrong	housefly - family Muscidae
hover fly	not sure	flower-fly - see flower fly - family Syrphidae
long-legged fly	N/A	no page - family Dolichopodidae
march fly	wrong	horse-fly - yes "horse-fly" (Diptera: Tabanidae)!!! march flies are in the family Bibionidae
minute black scavenger fly	N/A	no page - family Scatopsidae
moth fly	not sure	only family Psychodidae page
mydas fly	N/A	no page - family Mydidae
phantom crane fly	N/A	no page - family Ptychopteridae
primitive crane fly	not sure	only family Tanyderidae page
robber fly	correct	robber fly - family Asilidae
sand fly	wrong	sandfly - has a picture of Culicoides sp. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)!!! Sand flies are in the family Psychodidae
small-headed fly	not sure	only family Acroceridae page
snipe fly	N/A	no page - family Rhagionidae
soldier fly	not sure	only family Stratiomyidae page
stable fly	correct	stable fly - no redirect pages - "stable-fly" found in content family Muscidae
stiletto fly	not sure	only family Therevidae page
tangle-veined fly	N/A	no page - family Nemestrinidae
window fly	N/A	no page - family Scenopinidae
winter crane fly	N/A	no page - family Trichoceridae

I expounded on this to some degree on the Wikipedia Naming Convention page, so I won't repeat a lot of it here, but if an insect is a true fly, than that insect has fly as a separate word at the species level. Groups (such as families) may very well have hyphens in their name, but not species. When surveys are done to determine the correct naming convention, Google doesn't count. If a third grader or a Ph.D. in history uses "housefly" on their pages, it is an unknown error on their part that Wikipedia is continuing to teach others. Trfasulo (talk) 20:43, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Weight

Alright, that sounds all very nice, but I wanted to know a rough figure for the weight of a (house) fly. A web search doesn't tell me either.

Thanks

Stephan

Spelling

This article was recently moved from "housefly" to "house-fly". I don't think this was a wise move:

• Encyclopedia Britannica, Encylopedia.com, Webster, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, MeSH all call it "housefly"
• a PubMed search shows slightly more articles using "housefly" than "house fly"; I couldn't locate a single article using "house-fly"
• Google is about equally divided between "housefly" and "house fly", even if the search is restricted to .edu sites only.
• Google's search engine does not seem to distinguish between "house fly" and "house-fly"; however on the first ten result pages from a Google search for "house-fly", not a single article actually uses the hyphenated version.
• The only place I could find "house-fly" was in the Oxford English Dictionary.

In summary, I'd say that "housefly" and "house fly" win, with "house-fly" a distant third; we should follow the other dictionaries and encyclopedias and go with "housefly" as our main entry. AxelBoldt 18:56, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think the person who moved it is probably British, since the OED (needlessly to say, a British dictionary) lists only "house-fly". As much as I like British spelling, the WP policy states that whichever spelling -- American or British -- comes first shall stay unchanged unless with good reasons. --Menchi 19:18, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Doing a Google search for "house-fly" on .uk sites, I definitely find more occurrences of "house-fly" than on US sites, but even in .uk they're still outnumbered by "house fly" about 5 to 1. Also, the Cambridge Dictionary and Freesearch are both British and prefer "housefly". AxelBoldt 00:51, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't realise at the time that this ws such a can of worms. I do think, however, that there is a case for it. Please see Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(fauna) for my reasons, such as they were. Stemonitis 09:13, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Ok, continuing discussion over there. AxelBoldt 19:30, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Question: (not sure if this belongs here)

Why do flies keep flying around in circles and when they meet up, they fight or something?

The 'fight' is probably an attempt at copulation. I am not sure about the circles, but I guess they either could be because of the close light sources in human areas, or to throw off predators. Insects that use the sun or moon to navigate expect the light sources they use to not move with respect to them when they fly around, and thus get confused by closer light sources such as lightbulbs. When they try to maintain a constant flight angle with respect to a nearby lightsource, they end up flying in spirals around it. This seems to be the case for moths, atleast, but houseflies seem to fly in more chaotic patterns, and to do so in any circumstance, so this explanation probably doesn't work for them. Amaurea 06:38, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

--- That's a good question I'd also like to know. :)

question:why do we see houseflies more during rainy season ???

Images: Not of housefly

The first and third image aren't of houseflies as far as I can tell. They look like they might be of Sarcophaga carnaria (image here: http://www.uknature.co.uk/FleshFly.jpg), though it's a bit hard to tell with the third image. The second image looks correct. I think #2 should be used in the info-box, and the others replaced or deleted. Amaurea 22:56, 2005 Jun 14 (UTC)

The images seem to have changed since my last edit, but the one of the copulating flies [1] still seems to be of flesh flies instead of houseflies. Amaurea 06:38, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

The fly in the picture labelled "A close-up of a common house-fly preening." (currently the fourth picture) seems to be iridescent green and looks like it might be some sort of blow-fly, but I could be wrong. Inexorability 21:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

... and the new batch of photos wasn't any better; three photos, two obviously not M. domestica and one, while Musca, probably not M. domestica. So I deleted them all. Sigh. Unfortunately errors here tend to propagate to other wikipedias in other languages.[User:Kahis|Kahis]] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.112.48.122 (talk) 21:24, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Added a photo of a Musca into the information box. The fly in the photograph may perhaps be Musca autumnalis instead of Musca domestica, but as the females of the two species are close enough to throw even dipterists off course, the photo will suffice until a better photograph is found. At least this photo shows the main characters of the fly genus and it is miles better than the random non-Musca flies used for previous illustrations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kahanpaa (talk • contribs) 00:58, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

There is a drawing titled "anatomy of the house fly", with numbered body parts, but no legend to explain what the numbers stand for. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.98.114.70 (talk) 20:53, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Restoring some information

I just restored the information about the project "web server in dead fly" again. Uses of flies in art are clearly relevant to the section "Humans and flies". I also added some depictions of flies in trompe l'oeil paintings.

The claim that house flies evolved in Africa and possibly entered America with Columbus is made by Benard Greenberg, author of Flies and Disease, reported in [2]. AxelBoldt 17:49, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

RE: Deleted once more. :) I think it's nonsense to include references to paintings and other forms of art concerning flies. It's not relevant when considering the biology and nature of this animal. I think you are misinterpreting the name of the section 'Humans and Flies'. This section was added, because houseflies are particularly well known for the commensal nature of their relationship with humans. Especially in colder climates, the housefly is only found in regions that are populated by man. Because they can carry pathogens, humans are constantly trying to rid this organism from their habitat. In other words, the section is about the biological relationship between the two.

Including references of how flies have been depicted or used in human art is not relevant for this section. Maybe you should create a section like 'Flies in popular culture', like it was done for articles on animals such as frogs, tigers and elephants.

Ok, that makes sense. I'm happy with a separate section, except that Christus' paintings aren't exactly "popular culture". AxelBoldt 16:29, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Why do they like poop?

What does a fly get out of poop? Moisture? Useful bacteria? Maybe poop smells enough like dead flesh to confuse a fly? (2005-11-14 03:02:58 24.170.177.130)

This question applies to many species of flies, as well as beetles and many other types of insects, and so probably doesn't belong on this page, but in general feces are incompletely digested, and still contain much nutrition in an easily digestable form. This makes them an ideal environment for many maggots. Poop is too big a part of the life of flies for them not to be well enough adapted to it to know it for what it is (if it hadn't been useful for the flies, then flies wasting time visiting it would have a competitive disadvantage). Amaurea 03:57, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

I've never seen maggots in poop. I've seen regular maggots in dead flesh, and tiny fruit-fly maggots in fruit, but never any maggots in poop. You sure about that? Do adult flies need food? 24.170.177.130 04:50, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

All I can say to this is that you haven't ever looked below the surface. They're there. :) 67.177.251.218 (talk) 01:20, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

A little late with this comment but if you have never seen maggots in poop (more generally called manure) then you have never spent much time on a livestock farm. On Dairy farms considerable effort is spent in keeping the fly populations low but frequently in Hog or Beef raising farms no effort is made whatsoever and flies may number in the millions. The fly reproduction is entirely in manure; no carrion required. And yes, they are common house flies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.59.204.122 (talk) 00:42, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Trapping

Add Method of killing flies, fly spray, bait jars, fly paper etc

Is that really relevant for this article? Would you put methods for killing raccoons in their article, just because they can be an annoyance too? Perhaps something like that could be mentioned in a section about their relationship with humans, but that would probably apply to many other kinds of flies too, and belong in a more general article. Amaurea 08:49, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Add it. The raccoon case is borderline, because raccoons seldom need to be killed. Nearly everybody kills flies at least once a year. When was the last time you killed a raccoon? A few brief notes about raccoon bait would be proper I think. For flies, methods for killing them should get a large section. AlbertCahalan 05:54, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

But yuck, why does it have that suggestion of vacuuming flies? One is not supposed to vacuum flies, or spiders for that matter.Bib 15:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

External links

I think the articles are supposed to be as self-contained (witin Wikipedia) as possible, and external links confined to its own section. However, I can't find anything stating that in the manual of style. The life cycle image in the external link that was just added is nice, but the right way of doing it would be to find an image we could include in the article. I'll move that link to the external links section for now, but this article is getting to have a bit too many of those. Amaurea 18:56, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

FYI! My apartment has been taken over by houseflies (I last counted 70+) due to a dead bird in the air vents. Not only was I looking for information on a housefly's life span but I also thought that it was interesting to seen the different methods of ridding your house of common houseflies. I personally won't kill them, I sadly prefer to catch them with a plastic cup and release them outside.

Requested move

housefly → house fly - Rationale: Common names for true flies (Diptera) have the word "fly" as a seperate word in the name. Other insects have the word "fly" attached to the common name (ex. dragonfly). Talk:housefly — Totipotent 22:55, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Survey

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~

• Oppose: "Housefly" is at least as common, probably much more so. Jonathunder 22:36, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

It's also common, these days, for people to write “your” when they mean “you're”, and to mix up the uses of “there”, “their”, and “they're”, to write “u” when they mean “you”, and to display other similar examples of borderline illiteracy..  Just because it seems that the latest generations are falling into illiteracy doesn't mean we should accept this illiteracy as being in any way “correct”.  “Housefly” may be common, but it is still incorrect.

Not moved as a no consensus. —Nightstallion (?) ^{Seen this already?} 10:35, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

• Support: If you click on the Wikispecies link that is on the "housefly" page, you go to the Wikispecies page on Musca domestica that in turn links to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System Web site, which lists the common name of this species as house fly — two words! Trfasulo (talk) 20:57, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

• Support: I learned long ago of the convention that true flies, of the order Diptera always had “fly” as a separate part of their common name, while insects that were not true flies, but had “fly” as part of their name, always had the “fly” combined into a single word with the rest of the name (Example: Dragonfly).  I learned also of the same convention regarding “bugs”.  It seems like a useful convention, that ought to be followed. Bob Blaylock (talk) 11:12, 29 May 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose': Taxonomists will often try and impose conventions on common names to mirror those quite properly applied to systematic names. That doesn't make them correct English. Whoever heard of a Gad Fly? Stub Mandrel (talk) 21:18, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Lifespan? (and other general biological stats)

What's the lifespan on a housefly? What about:

• size (length, height)
• weight
• number of young
• and so forth

Though, this might go better on the infobox for every type of animal... --MyOwnLittlWorld 20:54, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

I think some data has been filled in since 2007, lifespan is mentioned for example. But I could not find what is the typical size (body length) of a housefly? (80.98.114.70 (talk) 20:47, 4 February 2016 (UTC)).

The picture of the day note below has some accompanying text - there I found (at last!) the size of the house fly. This was missing from the artcle, so I am going to add it. (80.98.114.70 (talk) 21:07, 4 February 2016 (UTC)).

Definition of housefly

Are all flies that enter homes considered houseflies? It is easy to notice that some flies spend all their time at windows, wishing to return outside, while others prefer to cruise the interior, alighting in any number of places.

Or is a housefly a range of species that simply live around humans? Pendragon39 21:11, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Just because a fly of some species enters a house doesn't make it THE house fly. There are many flies in houses, but there is only one house fly (two words). There is even a species called the lesser house fly (different genus), but I do not think it is a formally accepted common name. There is only one fly that has the formally accepted common name of house fly and that is the Musca domestica Linnaeus species. Trfasulo (talk) 20:00, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I may be the only one confused but when I see "domestic fly",as in the introduction, it makes me wonder who domesticated it? Are all critters, ants, cockroaches, mice and so on that we share our domiciles with domestic? Just because "domestica" is part of the species name doesn't lead to calling it a domestic fly. Common house fly would be more accurate.MisterHOP (talk) 01:05, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Hypnotizing a fly?

I've never heard of this. Is there supporting source material or has anyone else ever heard of this? I've got this image of fly charmers in my head now. heh. This is in reference to the part of the Life Cycle section that says:

"Another method of killing a fly is to hypnotise it[citation needed] with the index and pinky finger while creating a spring-like tension in between the middle finger and thumb. The fly will be motionless and unable to fly away. Use this time wisely and release the tension between the middle finger and thumb, projecting the fly about 5 meters. The fly will be in shock for about 10 seconds before it regains consciousness, so make sure you watch where you flick it!"

Nevar1982 (talk) 23:37, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like bolloks to me =P would be a cool trick to show people though hehe 90.216.63.174 (talk) 02:15, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Ahaha, this is clearly a reference to the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuZY2PTmW4c "How to Hypnotize a Fly" Absurdly silly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.227.115.137 (talk) 06:41, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Ecological question

I understand that for years the mainland Chinese have had a mandatory program of everybody killing 10 flies a day. Travellers have commented you never see a fly in many of the chinese territories. Does anyone know (and has any research been done) on what - if any - effect this has had on the ecology? Plants not pollinated? Substitute pollinators? etc.?67.161.166.20 (talk) 18:36, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Houseflies in religion

I removed several unsubstantiated paragraphs based on Mohammedan scriptural exegesis (note the misspellings also). If anyone wants to offer evidence for any of this beyond a single article from 1927 then we can consider putting it back. Besides being absurd, it's dangerous to go around encouraging people to put flies in their food.

Medically it is well known now that a fly carries some pathagens on some parts of its body as mentioned by the Prophet (before 1400 years. approx. when the humans knew very little of modern medicine.) Similarly Allah created organisms and other mechanisms which kill these pathagens e.g. penicillin Fungus kills pathogenic organisms like Staphalococci and others etc. Recently experiments have been done under supervision which indicate that a fly carries the disease (pathagens) plus the antidote for those organ-isms. Ordinarily when a fly touches a liquid food it infects the liquid with its pathogens, so it must be dipped in order to release also the antidote for those pathogens to act as a counter balance to the pathogens.

Only in modern times was it discovered that the common fly carried parasitic pathogens for many diseases including malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, and others. It was also discovered that the fly carried parasitic bacteriophagic fungi capable of fighting the germs of all these diseases.

There has long been evidence of bacterial pathogen-suppressing micro-organisms living in houseflies. An article in Vol. 43 of the Rockefeller Foundation's Journal of Experimental Medicine (1927) p. 1037 stated:

The flies were given some of the cultured microbes for certain diseases. After some time the germs died and no trace was left of them while a germ-devouring substance formed in the flies - bacteriophages. If a saline solution were to be obtained from these flies it would contain bacteriophages able to suppress four kinds of disease-inducing germs and to benefit immunity against four other kinds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nccsa186 (talk • contribs) 17:45, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Common housefly

I decided to add additional calling of housefly for this article, common housefly. Am i correct? Troodonraptor (talk) 14:33, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

conservation status: nutrines

At the time of writing, conservation status is recorded as nutrines. I tried researching nutrines, no relevent english links or definitions except on this very page. I suspect translation problem. 68.144.80.168 (talk) 23:45, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Probable Vandalism removed

Removed the phrase "much similar to the close relative of this species, Julieanneia Macdonaldias". I can find no other references to this species, and I reckon it was probably added by someone who doesn't like julieanne MacDonald. Rojomoke (talk) 13:20, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Removed a bunch of vandalism by reverting the article. Antictzn113 (talk) 20:36, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

How long can flies live without eating?

I've had this fly buzzing around my sunroom for a week. There's nothing in the room for it to eat. It just won't... *smack*, uh, die. Oh well, a moot question now for *that* particular fly. Have to wash my hands now! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 04:13, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Silly question. There's plenty of food for a fly to eat in a seemingly empty room. Dead skin cells. Possibly human or animal hair. Dead insects. Crumbs of food in the carpets. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.150.27.130 (talk) 17:25, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Conservation status

Is it really Least Concern? --Pinky sl (talk) 18:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the much better question is "Is it really Near Threatened?" Reverted. I want a citation if you're going to claim the insect is Near Threatened. It reads ridiculously, especially when the article itself comments on its widespread distribution and ubiquitousness. --71.90.81.29 (talk) 15:45, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Over the last ten years or so, even if not studied, houseflies seem to have almost vanished. Not long ago a routine feature of summer were the houseflies spiralling about each other in the centre of rooms, and the glue-strips, Vapona, and the like that were deployed to reduce their number. No more. It is sad that we need to have a representative to validate such a commonplace observation, and that we must be silent on the matter if no-one agrees to so be nominated. LookingGlass (talk) 19:34, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

I came to this page looking for information on why house flies seem to have vanished in the United Kingdom. "Now when I was a lad" :-) 1950s-60s, open a window with a light on in the evening and you would soon have a roomful of flies. But now I never see them at all. I once heard it said that newsprint ink contained a chemical that made them sterile. Please would someone knowledgeable add some information about this "extinction" ? Darkman101 (talk) 22:33, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Most curious. If houseflies have declined in houses it is probably because of better hygiene. Domestic flykillers are now far less available or potent. I see fewer now because I am now vegetarian, the appearance of a dead mouse has corrected the fly deficit. Stub Mandrel (talk) 21:09, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

More on disease needed

The section talking about the housefly as a disease vector needs a lot of expansion as to how common it is, rather than just listing all the possible diseases that have been transmitted. Otherwise, the reader is left wondering - well, what, does Giardia get transmitted via housefly once per billion infections? Is the housefly really much of a disease threat? How is this quantified? Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:25, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Agreed! How can the housefly be BOTH commensal AND a vector of serious pathogens?? LookingGlass (talk) 19:29, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

I couldn't locate any Dirty Limerick Wiki

Popular Culture? 174.22.122.141 (talk) 14:50, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Text from this article..

Text from this Wikipedia article apparently has been copied directly into the Prix Goncourt winning novel La Carte et le Territoire (2010), without attribution, as reported here. Congratulations to the authors of this Wikipedia article for being co-winners of the Prix Goncourt, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world. Green Cardamom (talk) 16:19, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Oops, since it's a French-language novel, it was probably copied from the French-language Wikipedia, but it's possible there is some translated overlap between the En and Fr language versions of these articles. Green Cardamom (talk) 16:24, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

File:Housefly on a leaf crop.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Housefly on a leaf crop.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on October 2, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-10-02. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng {chat} 16:33, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The housefly (Musca domestica) is the world's most common species of fly, accounting for about 90% of all flies in human habitations, and indeed one of the most widely distributed insects, found all over the world. Adult houseflies grow to 8–12 millimetres (0.3–0.5 in) long, with females being slightly larger than males.Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

There are 4 houseflies in my house. When will they die? Also, what diseases can houseflies pass on? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.117.20.76 (talk) 15:00, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Maggot Confusion

Introductory paragraph says:

She lays batches of about 100 eggs ... These soon hatch into legless white maggots which after 2 to 5 days of development transform into reddish-brown pupae, about 8 mm (0.3 in) long.

Further down the text says:

Within a day, larvae (maggots) hatch from the eggs ... Their life cycle ranges from 14 to 90 days. At the end of their fourth instar, the maggots ... transform into pupae ... The adult flies then emerge from the pupae.

This is inconsistent. The larval stage cannot last 2-5 days AND 14 to 90 days. Which is correct? Also, how long does it take between the creation of the pupa and emergence of the adult? The second text suggests that adult emergence is almost instant, which cannot possibly be accurate. Stub Mandrel (talk) 21:05, 22 July 2016 (UTC)