Behold the hateful housefly

by Sripathy Jayamaha

Virtually everyone in the world has, at some time, been bothered by the housefly. They are 'at home' in all the homes be they in Colombo 7 or the canvas covered homes of those living on the pavement. They are also there to bother you at all places of religious worship and in ships at sea.

The housefly is just one of the 100,000 species of flies, and it is the most detestable and disease-carrying insect in the world apart from the mosquito.

The fly is very light and about 150,000 would weigh around a kilogram. It looks frightening with short stubby hairs, with full circle rotating head with large eyes that give unfocused sight. Its image of the world is of light and dark and movement.

Its antenna has sense cells that can detect movement in the air, apparent dangers like hands and fly-swatters. It could also smell rotting garbage and other fly delicacies.

Its mouth is called the proboscis and it looks like a funnel.

Its long body can be retracted when not in use, and is pressed into its source of food. Tiny teeth in it can scrape up all the particles of food, through a suction pad called the labella.

As in all insects it has six legs, used for walking and tasting. Once the foot is on a sugary and spicy item, it loosens its proboscis to the spot.

Sugar and protein laced food are their favourites. The female feeds less on sugar and more on protein, during its egg laying season.

There are no medical files, lipid profiles, pre-natal and anti natal clinics. Its food has to be spongy and liquid. It would spit on anything to make it juicy and delectable.

The proboscis sucks up the food like a vacuum cleaner. A bit of vomit remains where it had its meal. The tell-tale marks could be seen on clean windows amounting to a couple of thousand to a square inch.

They just hang around on four legs. Man has wondered at the mobility of flies.

They can land anywhere, walk up walls, rest on leaves, custard pudding or chutney within seconds.

It lands on any spot, be it rough or smooth and grab it with its tiny claws endowed with a bladder like pads that secret a sticky substance.

Researchers have found that flies do a half body roll as they hit any sub-stratum. Equally wondrous is the fly's ability to take off and land without a runway. Most insects need a little jump or glide before a start and a stop.

A fly is airborne as soon as it flaps its wings. Its wings are fascinating paper thin multi veined iridescent and could keep on booting for hours at an unbelievable rate of about 200 times a seconds, that are replenished by four auxiliary hearts in order to keep the wing muscles in working order.

These muscles weigh about 15 percent of the total body weight. They are prolific breeders. A new generation arrives every 10 days. The female lays about 120 eggs at a sitting. Scientists have calculated, that a single pair of flies could produce to cover four times the size of our country. It reminds us of Daphne Du Maurier's thought-provoking novel The Birds. But nature has made this awesome happening to be contained through lizards, frogs, snakes, birds, rats and man. Once hatched, flies live three lives. In the maggot stage they look like worms. They eat and grow while shedding their skins many times. Next they build a case round its body. Then it bursts out of the shell as an adult fly.

A housefly's life is ruled by temperature. It becomes lethargic when temperature drops. High temperatures cause paralysis and sometimes death. Very cold weather could also be fatal. They live for about 30 days. The housefly has been with us for ages.

They have graced our mouth watering delicacies, puss-oozing sores, the nappies of babies and bodies of humans and animals.

They have been seen in maternity homes and funeral parlours. What makes us hate them is that they can be on our lunch table and within a few seconds leaving a new generation. They sit and vomit. Shop windows in hotels and market places have millions of these marks.

They carry the germs for dysentery, cholera, tuberculosis and many other bowel diseases. Many have become benevolent millionaires in giving us tge state of the art fly swatters.

We will never be able to eliminate the housefly. But we can keep them away by keeping food and garbage in containers. The housefly has been and will be a part of nature.