How Long Do Flies Live? Fun Fly Facts For Kids

Imagine you're eating at a taco truck, and there is buzzing around your food.

Has your garbage been lying around for long? Look around, and you may find there is a group of flies there.

Flies are a widespread insect that you can find around you. House flies are insects that carry various diseases due to living and sitting on garbage and dirty areas.

Even though flies only tend to live for a few days, they reproduce actively, which helps them maintain their numbers. Houseflies are known to be an extreme nuisance due to their sounds and the digestive diseases caused by them.

The lifespan of a fly typically depends on the fly species, but generally, the lifespan of a fly is only up to 15-25 days. Even though it is only a short period of time, flies see time at a different speed than humans. They see everything at four times the speed of the human eye. Therefore the short weeks that they live can feel like a whole lifecycle for them.

If you are looking for more fascinating facts, check out these fun facts articles about why flies bite and why birds fly into windows.

The Life Cycle Of A Fly

Different species of flies have different life cycles. Most have an average lifespan of 15-30 days in which they are born and die. House flies have an average lifespan of four weeks or a month.

In this time period, a female housefly lays up to five to six batches of eggs. There are four stages in a house fly's life cycle: eggs, larva, pupal, and adults. Adult females lay up to 70-150 eggs in one batch over a period of three to four days.

Female flies like to lay eggs in damp and nutrient-rich places. Larvae are also known as maggots; they hatch within 20 hours of the eggs being laid. These maggots are white in color and extremely tiny. The maggots tend to feed on the surface that they hatch on.

The larval stage goes on for three to five days. After going through their larval stage, these maggots find a cool and dry place to pupate. This pupae stage lasts for up to six days, in which the pupal case changes its color from yellow to black. In this stage, flies usually start to develop wings, legs, and the rest of the body shape of a housefly.

After this period, the pupa comes out as an adult fly that lives up to 15-24 days or even up to two months in some cases. After becoming an adult, female flies can reproduce after two to three days.

How long flies live also depends on their living conditions. Flies that live indoors in warm temperatures live longer than flies in the wild. Many people say that flies tend to only live for 24 hours, which is not true for house flies, but mayflies die within 24 hours.

Fruit flies have a longer fly lifespan than houseflies. These flies live up to 40-50 days on average. Fruit flies also have the same life cycle in four stages as house flies. A single female fruit fly can lay up to 500 eggs in one batch. Due to the fast reproduction of flies, an infestation of flies is a common issue in many places.

Common Types Of Flies

There are many types of flies in the world, like the housefly, fruit fly, horse fly, and more.

The housefly is a type of fly that is the most commonly found around homes. They are found in houses and are hated by all of us for the buzzing sound that they make. These flies are grey and black in color and have big red eyes. They have a hairy body and one set of wings.

House flies are known to spread many diseases. Adult flies are known to be attracted to all kinds of human food, feces, and waste.

The bluebottle fly is another common fly that can be found hovering over dustbins. They are also known to carry a lot of diseases that come from waste.

The drain fly or moth fly is known to infest drains or sewage and feed on organic waste materials.

Fruit flies are another common fly that is found in fruit waste or fruit orchards. These flies are yellow in color.

All these flies have six legs, out of which two help them in tasting the surface they land on. These legs have tiny hair with taste sensors. These also help them to stick onto objects or surfaces.

Did you know that a fruit fly can grow its legs back?

Flies are found everywhere around us; hence it is important to keep track of a fly infestation to prevent the diseases caused by them from spreading to us.

How do you get rid of house flies?

House flies are one the most common species of insects that bug homeowners due to their persistent infestations.

Typically, homeowners should check their property regularly for a fly infestation. As flies lay eggs quickly and in large numbers, an inspection of the property for maggots and pests, especially in the summer season, is vital. It is also vital to get rid of these creatures as they could cause serious health problems if not under your control.

Some of the ways to control fly infestations are given below.

For one, you should install meshes on your windows and doors as adult flies can enter your property from there.

Garbage bins and waste should be disposed of correctly as flies mostly lay eggs in these spaces. These eggs only take a few days to hatch into larvae and then into a pupa and adults and start the life cycle again.

As houseflies tend to sit on your food and are typically the carriers of many deadly diseases, it is advised to keep your food covered in open spaces.

You should keep your pets clean as flies sometimes tend to lay eggs in their dirty fur. The feces of your pets are also a perfect place for larvae to develop as they provide the needed nutrients.

You should also be alert and look out for a pest infestation when you see a lot of flies buzzing around in your house. You should check if there are any waste products that could be attracting these flies.

You should contact your local pest control agency to provide pest control services according to your local area requirements and environment. You might want to get pest control every three weeks in the summer season due to high amounts of larva growth. Pest control is one of the best ways to get rid of pests in your household and prevent diseases caused by houseflies.

How long can flies live without food?

Flies are only able to eat liquid food. They can, although, turn solid food into liquid by spitting on it.

Flies can only live up to three days in their adult lives without food.

These flies are attracted to sweet and fragrant food products. Flies use their mouths to eat their food. They touch their mouth to the food source to drink the liquid; this is often the cause of many diseases in humans like cholera, as these flies sit on the garbage and then on your food and transfer the bacteria through their mouth. This contact with both kinds of food is a matter of concern.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our fly facts, then why not take a look at our articles on animals that fly or animals that live underground?