How to get rid of an earthfly: chemicals and folk methods

Experts believe that flies appeared on our planet about 200 million years ago. For such a long period of their development, flies have formed more than 400 thousand species, and also were able to adapt to various habitat conditions. Today, there are no flies except beyond the Arctic Circle and within Antarctica. There are species that feed on the nectar of flowers, as well as blood, including species that do not disdain carrion, and some eat fresh organic matter. Many species that previously lived in the steppe and forest-steppe zones have moved closer to humans. Therefore, we can safely assume that there are both wild species and species adapted to the conditions of civilization.

Population and status of the species

Photo: Drosophila fly
The fruit fly family is one of the world's most numerous insects. More than a thousand species of flies are already known to exist. The fruit fly is a very common species. Its habitat includes almost the entire planet, with the exception of areas where the air temperature remains low throughout the year. In some territories, this animal lives permanently, in others - it gets randomly along with the imported food.

The fruit fly is an insect whose population does not cause any concern. It is stable and the animal is not threatened with extinction. This insect is numerous, multiplies rapidly and is able to adapt even to difficult habitat conditions. At one time, the female Drosophila fly lays more than fifty larvae. She continues to multiply until the very last day. During her short life, the female is able to lay several hundred eggs.

Drosophila larvae have a high survival rate, develop rapidly and turn into an adult. All this allows this type of insect to maintain a high population. Even the deterioration of the general ecological situation and the use of various pesticides on the farm did not have a detrimental effect on such midges.

Fruit flies are some of the smallest and most famous insects on the planet. They multiply very quickly on rotting vegetables or fruits. It takes just a couple of days for a whole swarm of small, annoying fruit flies to appear over the bitten apple. Despite the sabotage, the fruit fly is an interesting insect that is definitely worth learning more about.

Ways to get rid of midges in home plants

There are many ways to get rid of these harmful parasites, both chemical and folk. To get rid of insects, you should resort to the following measures.

The flower soil, in which the insects have already settled, should be thrown away. The flower is removed from the pot, the root system is washed and the already treated plant is transplanted into disinfected soil. There is an option to replace the topsoil.

If it is not possible to change the affected soil, then it is recommended to treat it with an insecticide. Fitoverm, Aktara, Tanrek can be attributed to more effective preparations for flower flies. The Muchoed Insecticide, which comes in pellets, is also effective against annoying ground flies.

If there are not too many pests yet, then fly sticky hanging next to flower pots will help in catching them.

If there are already a lot of insects, then it is recommended to use aerosol preparations for destruction, such as Dichlorvos and Raptor. Slightly spraying the product, window sills, shelves, walls near house plants are processed. Plus, both the soil in the flower pot and its bottom. The result of processing will be the death of adults and their eggs laid in the ground.

Another good remedy for midges is to reduce the number of watering that flower that has been infested with parasites. Dry soil will contribute to the death of the larvae.

What does it look like

Hoverflies, they are also sirphids, are a large family, numbering about 6,000 species. Outwardly, the striped fly from the family Syrphidae really resembles a formidable wasp, bee, or even a bumblebee. This feature (mimicry) allows the insect to defend itself from a bird that wants to feast on it. After all, birds try not to contact with wasps, fearing their sting and poison.

The body size of an adult hoverfly is 10-12 mm; there are also large specimens up to 25 mm in size. The main distinguishing feature of this species of insects is the absence of hard hairs, which are owned by representatives of other fly families. Like a bumblebee, a striped, dark yellow color, the body of a fly is covered with fine hair. But unlike these insects, hoverflies lack a second pair of wings, which gives them the opportunity to hover for a long time in flight and abruptly change the direction of their movement. The hoverfly has light short legs and a moderate proboscis length.

Fly hoverfly

How to fly with a spinning rod

Spinning fly fishing is the most common use of this bait.

When used in this variation, you can choose one of the types of front sight attachment. This is either setting directly on the spoon, or putting it on the hook directly outside the spoon.

Thus, in any case, the front sight will be ideal for catching predators.

Note!

Fishing with rattlin - features and secrets of using the bait. 100 photos and videos of correct fishing technique
Fishing with a mandula: technique and features of catching predators. Nuances and important features of fishing (105 photos)
Making flies with your own hands - how to do it quickly and easily? Crafting workshop and advice for novice fishermen (115 photos)

If you decide to use the fly directly on the spoon, then it will look like a small insect with a shiny belly.

This method attracts small predators like trout, chub, grayling. In order to organize this, you need to thread the fly through the top ring of the spoon.

But in the case of a large predator, attaching a front sight to a hook is better. So it will look like a small fish with a bright tail. Here the mount is simple and straightforward, even a beginner can handle it.This is the best fly for catching perch or pike.

Than a dangerous moose fly for humans

Consequences of a bite of a moose fly in humans

A fly bite causes an individual reaction in each person. Some victims note painlessness, others indicate strong discomfort at the puncture sites. In most cases, swelling and redness appear on the body. It is accompanied by unpleasant itching. It takes 7-14 days without special treatment. Able to bite in areas where the skin is thinnest.

People with overly sensitive skin, an increased tendency to allergies, develop reactions of varying severity. There is a rash, redness, inflammation, itching. With frequent scratching, pathogens enter the wounds, and a secondary infection joins. There are no other painful symptoms after moose flea bites. The body temperature does not rise, indigestion and intestinal upset do not appear.

Elk fly lives on the same animals as ixodid ticks, so it can be a carrier of Lyme disease. In the process of special studies in the body of hungry winged females in 27% of cases, infectious agents were found.

Growth fly developmental biology

The sprout fly hibernates in the pupal stage in false cocoons in the soil, deepening at the same time approximately to a depth of 8-10 cm from the surface. Fly begins in the second decade of April. They eat additionally. Egg-laying is carried out on wet lumps of soil, since eggs dry out quickly in dry soil and die. The embryonic development of this species lasts about 3-8 days and depends on the ambient temperature. After hatching, the larvae begin to move actively in the soil substrate in search of germinating seeds and feed on plant debris. Having found seedlings of fodder plants, the larvae penetrate at the site of the emergence of the sprout and gnaw holes and furrows in the cotyledons. After such damage, seeds and shoots rot and die. On seedlings of pumpkin seeds, the larvae gnaw through the hypocotyledonous knee and penetrate into the stalk, causing the death of the plant. A sprout fly gives three generations per year. The flight of flies of the first generation falls in the second decade of April - the first decade of May, the second generation - in June and the third - in the second decade of July. Larval development lasts approximately 30-40 days.

Seeds of corn damaged by the larva of the sprout fly

Horsefly bite

Children and allergy sufferers suffer greatly from attacks of horseflies, although an insect bite can bring a lot of health problems to a healthy adult. It is worth noting a number of dangerous diseases that gadflies carry:

trypanosomiasis, including Chagas disease and sleeping sickness, are carried by horseflies of the genus Tabanus;
tularemia - an infectious disease leading to damage to internal organs;
filariasis - helminthic infestations caused by parasitic roundworms;
anthrax is an extremely dangerous infection that occurs in humans mainly in the carbunculous form.

Sometimes a painful reaction to a horsefly bite is provoked by toxic saliva of insects, while a number of characteristic signs are noted:

burning pain at the time of the bite;
redness, swelling, excruciating itching;
dizziness and nausea;
in severe cases, shock and loss of consciousness.

With a severe allergic reaction, a person needs urgent medical attention, but in any case, a horsefly bite cannot be ignored.

Main types

The flies that most often come across in our regions to the eye of a person belong to the family of real flies.

In total, there are about 4 thousand species on the globe.

In addition to real flies, such an extensive biological class also includes meat flies, dung flies, fruit flies and three species of gadflies.

Insects are conventionally divided into two groups:

those living on the street or exophiles (more often they accumulate on the walls of toilets, in garbage cans, or fly near food);
preferring to live in human housing or endophiles.

In connection with humans, insects are divided into three types:

settlement, living in settlements;
semi-village, living near human habitation, but also able to live separately in natural shelters;
grazing, parasitic on livestock.

Several numerous species belong to village flies:

House flies live exclusively in residential buildings, and it is almost impossible to find them in nature. They have a gray body color with black stripes on the chest and a yellowish belly. The size of the imago reaches 0.8 centimeters. They feed only on liquid food and cannot bite a person. To absorb food, the proboscis is used, which, as it were, is licked off the nutritional mixtures. The diet is sweet tea or soup, jam, honey - and flies strive to sit on the edge of a plate or cup.
Market flies, as the name implies, can be found near retail outlets. The largest colonies of these flies are found in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In hot climates, insects become especially dangerous. On the body and limbs of flies, pathogens of cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery can be found.
Autumn flares are another dangerous village insects. These flies carry anthrax, sepsis, tularemia, trypanosomiasis. Outwardly, such flies are similar to indoor flies, but their abdomen is with black stripes. And the proboscis is elongated with notches. Rubbing it on the skin, the fly licks the blood from the wound, at the same time injecting poisonous saliva into the victim's body. Insects attack animals more often, but human bites are also not uncommon. The bite causes an allergic reaction and severe skin irritation.
The most famous semi-village flies are meat flies - blue, green and gray. These are some of the dirtiest and most unpleasant flies for humans. Adult females lay eggs on rotting remains, including decaying animal corpses or rotten meat and fish. Flies attracted by blood and pus also place the egg-laying directly in the wound on the body of animals or humans. Carnivorous larvae usually develop from 3 to 30 days.

Blood-sucking insects can also be found near human habitation. Several types of bloodsuckers live in our climatic zone: horse, deer, dog. Flies with a sharp proboscis deliver painful injections and feed on blood. And the most dangerous species of bloodsuckers lives in Africa and is well known throughout the world as the tsetse fly. Tsetse males carry the infectious disease known as trypanosomiasis.

Pasture flies are more often ignored by settlements. They are attracted by the areas of accumulation of livestock for walking. The larvae of these species are parasitic. The most famous grazing flies are wolfart and gadfly. Insect bites bring a lot of torment to animals - the larvae live and develop directly in the body of livestock, causing, in addition to painful sensations, intoxication of the whole organism and a disorder of the nervous system.

What kind of midges start in indoor flowers?

Flies in flower pots appear due to poor quality soil, moist air, mold, or due to excess moisture in the soil. You need to get rid of pests immediately, they will not disappear on their own. The greatest harm to the plant is brought not by an adult, but by its larva. To prevent contamination of healthy flowers, they are separated from the infected and preventive treatment of all indoor plants is carried out.

In order for the fight to be effective, and it was possible to remove midges from indoor flowers in pots as quickly as possible, you need to determine what kind of pests they are. Common parasites of indoor plants: fruit flies, sciarids, whiteflies.

Fruit fly

This is a wine, fruit, fruit midge 2 - 3 mm long. Outwardly, it looks like an ordinary miniature fly.It is not dangerous for plants, it annoys people more. Having multiplied around the apartment, dozens of such midges fly, causing discomfort. Drosophila feeds on rotting debris, microorganisms and plant sap.

Sciaris

This is a small black midge - a mushroom gnat. In length, the parasite reaches 1 - 3 mm, the body is gray-black, elongated, the porch is transparent.

An adult is not dangerous, plants are threatened by sciarid eggs, which the pest lays in moist soil. The larvae are 3 - 5 mm long, they have a white body and a black head. They feed on rotting remains of plants in the soil, gnaw thin young roots of flowers.

The appearance of sciarid larvae entails compaction of the soil, deterioration of air circulation in the root system - the plant may die.

Whitefly

An alternative name for aleirod is the midge, which looks like an ordinary small moth. Reaches a length of 2-3 mm. She has two pairs of wings with a coating that resembles flour, the color is milky white.

Midges in flower pots are dangerous to plants at all stages of development. The parasite sucks the juice from the flowers, secretes liquid, like aphids. And the secretions themselves are the favorite food of mushrooms, which continue to destroy the flower further. Adults lay eggs on the back of the foliage. The hatched larvae, flies suck the juices from the stems and foliage. Damaged parts of the flower's body curl, deform, sticky dew appears on them. If you do not start treatment immediately, the flower will die.

The systematic position of the fly

A fly is a dipteran insect belonging to the type of arthropods, the order of flies and mosquitoes. Their final position in the scientific classification has not yet been determined. Scientists argue and put forward different versions of their division into suborders, genera and families.

In addition to differences in body structure, cracking of the pupa suture, the length of the whiskers, insects differ in the type of feeding. According to this criterion, they are divided into the following groups:

nectarophages, the basis of nutrition of which is nectar and vegetable juices;
aphages that do not need food in the adult phase of development;
hematophages feeding on blood and secretions of mucous membranes of animals and humans;
excrement-eating coprophages;
necrophages eating particles of dead tissue;
polyphages, using different food for saturation (animal and vegetable waste, feces, wound secretions, human food).

All varieties of these Diptera are also divided by their way of life into wild and synanthropic. The life of synanthropic species is closely related to humans. A prominent representative of this group is the housefly.

Afagi

Species that do not consume any food in adulthood. Among the most dangerous aphages are gadflies, the larvae of which feed on the soft muscle tissues of the hosts or parasitize in the intestines.

On a note!
Contrary to common belief, the gadfly does not bite or lay eggs under the skin.
The eggs of the gadfly, depending on the species, are either adhered to the animal's fur, or laid on the grass, or injected into the nose and eyes. The hatched larva makes its own way under the skin or into the intestines.

Features of character and lifestyle

Photo: African tsetse fly

The tsetse fly was aptly called the "silent killer" because it flies swiftly, but silently. It serves as a reservoir for numerous microorganisms. Adult males of the species can live for two to three weeks, and females for one to four months.

From the Sahara to the Kalahari, the tsetse fly has haunted African farmers for centuries. Even in ancient times, this tiny insect prevented farmers from using domestic animals for cultivating the land, limiting production, yields and income. The economic impact of the tsetse fly on Africa is estimated at $ 4.5 billion.

There are four interacting organisms involved in the transmission of trypanosomiasis: the carrier, the insect carrier, the pathogenic parasite, and the reservoir. Glossins are effective vectors and are responsible for the binding of these organisms, and any decrease in their numbers should result in a significant reduction in transmission and therefore contribute to the elimination of HAT and the sustainability of control efforts.

When bitten by a tsetse fly, transmitted parasites (trypanosomes) cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana (African animal trypanosomiasis) in animals - mainly cows, horses, donkeys and pigs. Parasites cause confusion, sensory disturbances and poor coordination in humans, and fever, weakness, and anemia in animals. Both can be fatal if left untreated.

The first continental study of the distribution of the tsetse fly was carried out in the 1970s. More recently, maps have been prepared for FAO showing predicted areas suitable for tsetse flies.

Breeding

For those who are not against breeding meat flies, and in particular their maggots, this section of our story is intended. We will tell you how to make the simplest maggot out of our favorite material for all kinds of crafts - an irreplaceable plastic bottle.

This is done as follows:

Cut the plastic bottle into two parts so that the upper part with a neck, when turned over and inserted into the lower half, does not reach the bottom by 4-5 centimeters.
Pour sawdust into the lower part of the "poltorashka" or "kopeck piece" in a layer of two to three centimeters.
Place a piece of fresh or spoiled meat or a piece of fish in the upper part. By the way, you can also lay some small fish that you rejected after fishing.
Place the maggot in a shaded area.

When the meat starts to spoil, the flies smell it and lay eggs there. The hatched larvae will feed on the substrate offered to them. Soon, a week after their eggs hatch, they will stop feeding in preparation for pupation and will seep through the neck of the bottle and onto the sawdust.

Thanks to crawling in sawdust, maggots will be cleansed of the smell of falling, and you can take them with you on a fishing trip without hesitation. If you put an egg in a maggot, then the larvae will be the largest.

Reproduction and life expectancy of the Drosophila fly

Reproduction of the Drosophila fly, like all Diptera, occurs in three stages:

The female lays eggs.
Larvae emerge from the eggs.
The larva turns into an adult.

Due to the presence of 8 chromosomes in the Drosophila fly, its larvae and eggs feel great in a semi-liquid environment. Therefore, female flies lay eggs on semi-rotten fruits or other nutrient medium.

They are held on the surface by means of special float chambers. The size of the egg of this type of fly is about 0.5 millimeters, and when the larvae hatch, their size is already up to 3.5 millimeters in length.

In the form of a larva, a fly must properly feed, since its size and characteristics of vital activity depend on this in the future. Immediately after their appearance, the larvae swim on the surface of the nutrient medium, but a little later they go deeper and live there until pupation.

4 days after the appearance of the pupa, a young fly is obtained from it, which reaches puberty after 8 hours. On the second day after maturation, females begin to lay new eggs and do this for the rest of their lives. Typically, a female can lay 50 to 80 eggs at a time.

It was noted that they tried to breed these flies in laboratory conditions, crossing male Drosophila flies with a gray body and a normal type of wings with black females, which had a shortened body. As a result of this crossing, 75% of the species with a gray body and normal wings turned out, and only 25% are black with shortened wings.

The lifespan of a fly depends entirely on the temperature regime. At a temperature of about 25 degrees, a fly is able to live for 10 days, and when the temperature drops to 18 degrees, this period doubles. In winter, flies can live for about 2.5 months.

Control methods

As soon as the pest has been detected, rescue actions need to be started:

the infected flower is rearranged to another place, away from other plants;
it is advisable to transplant a flower into a new, cultivated soil;
before transplanting, the roots of the plant are quickly washed under running water;
it is better to dry the soil; for this purpose, watering is not carried out for several days.

Chemical and folk remedies will help to quickly destroy the midges.

Folk remedies

Folk methods of getting rid of insects are considered safe and effective. It is recommended to set up traps or prepare soil and foliage formulations.

Allow to dry 2 cm layer

If you dry the ground, then there is a high probability that the midges will die. It is enough to wait for the soil to dry to a depth of 20 mm (insect larvae do not live deeper than 2.5 cm). Dry, damaged soil layer is replaced with new soil. All flying individuals must be caught using homemade traps.

Traps

You can buy gnats from the store, but they are easy to make yourself. It is enough to use any material soaked in sweet syrup.

Special

Intrusive flies get into the eyes, into the mouth. To catch them, all you have to do is buy duct tape from the store and hang it around the room. The tape is impregnated with a special solution that attracts with its scent.

Homemade

It's easy to make the trap yourself. There are many options for their manufacture:

Cut long strips of fabric or paper, soak them with sweet compounds (jam, honey) and hang them near the window.
You can make a trap from a plastic bottle. It is necessary to cut off the bottom of the bottle, put an apple core inside. The upper part of the cut part is covered with a film and small holes are made. Through the holes, midges easily penetrate into the container, but they cannot get out back.
Some types of midges can be caught using potatoes. The potatoes are cut in half. Half are placed in a flower pot. After a while, the larvae will stick around the fresh cut of the potato.

A vacuum cleaner

When the pests are sitting on the leaves of the flowers, you can try to suck them in with a vacuum cleaner. This method should be repeated several times and is best combined with other methods of dealing with flyers. The bag should be discarded after each procedure.

Garlic infusion

Garlic has a detrimental effect on many insects. Garlic infusion is useful for work:

chop the cloves of three heads of garlic;
the gruel is poured with a liter of boiling water;
so that the component is infused, leave for 3.5 hours;
then the composition is filtered;
the prepared solution is poured over the damaged soil and the leaves are sprayed.

Potassium permanganate solution

If midges are found in flowers, watering with potassium permanganate will help. A small amount of potassium permanganate is diluted in water (the water should turn pink) and the plant is watered. So that the pests do not appear again, the treatment is carried out two days later.

Soap solution

A soap solution will help to remove indoor pests:

grind laundry soap;
soap shavings (25 g is enough) are dissolved in 900 ml of boiling water;
the leaves are treated with a ready-made solution and the soil around the flower is watered.

Sulfur

Match sulfur repels pests:

matches (gray down) deepen into the ground around the flower;
moisten the place around each match;
after a day, the matches are changed to new ones, since the sulfur quickly dissolves.

After 3-4 updates of matches, the midges should disappear.

Anthelmintic drugs

Any anti-helminth remedy purchased from a pet store (for example, "Pirantel") is suitable for tillage.The preparation of the solution is carried out according to the recommendations specified in the instructions. To kill all insects, the plant is watered with the solution twice with an interval of six days.

Toxic greenhouse

A toxic greenhouse is easy to make. The method is efficient and economical.

First, they wait for the soil to dry thoroughly after the next watering.

Put the pot in a bag and spray a little "Dichlorvos"

You need to take a large plastic bag and place the whole flower inside. All actions are carried out carefully so that the branches of the plant do not crumple or break:

Dichlorvos is sprayed inside the package.
In this state, the flower is left for 3.5 hours. During this time, all individuals manage to die.
The flower is rearranged away from other plants and the bag is removed. Return to the old place is carried out in 12 days.

"Dichlorvos" can be replaced by "Raptor", "Raid" or solutions made on the basis of such insecticides as "Karbofos", "Thunder", "Aktara", "Aktellik".

Repeat after 8 days

To prevent midges from appearing again, the whole procedure with spraying "Dichlorvos" and hanging adhesive tape is repeated again.

Flies that bite: are they dangerous?

Among flies there are poisonous and biting flies. Of the first, the tsetse fly (African fly) is considered the most popular. Everyone has heard of her at least in passing. Lives in the hot climate of Africa, settles near swamps and swamps. It feeds on the blood of cattle, but will not miss the opportunity to bite a person. And if this happens, the victim will fall ill with a deadly disease that destroys the central nervous system and immunity.

Tsetse fly

The African fly is the general name for the entire genus, in which there are 23 species. All are dangerous and from a meeting with such an enemy there will be nothing good for a person. Outwardly, the tsetse looks more like a horsefly than a housefly: it also folds its wings on top of each other and has a characteristic stinging proboscis. Living in the wild, she bites small animals, moving closer to humans - livestock and people. The disease that the African fly carries is called "sleeping sickness" and it leads to paralysis and death.

But this is exotic, let's return to local parasites. Are there any poisonous ones among them? No, but almost all are carriers of various infections on their paws. That is why the food on which the insect crawled is not worth eating. As a minimum, you can get a gastrointestinal disorder, and as a maximum - dysentery or tuberculosis.

However, there are among the usual ones that bite. You will be surprised, but it is not the usual housefly that attacks, but its bloodthirsty counterpart - the flare. Outwardly, the views are no different, except for the structure of the proboscis, but no one will pay attention to this.

Fly burner

The burner is one of the most unpleasant types, because, together with the bites, it can introduce an infection, which will develop sepsis. She is also a carrier of anthrax. And if the definition of "poisonous" does not suit her, then "dangerous" for sure.

Wolfarth fly

Another unpleasant representative of the fly tribe is the wolfarth fly, which is the causative agent of myiasis in cattle and in humans: it lays the larvae directly on the skin, after which they penetrate into the body and cause extensive inflammatory foci. Wolfarth fly attacks mainly sheep and goats.

Deer bloodsucker

Wild animals also suffer from parasites. For example, a deer fly (deer louse, elk tick, deer bloodsucker). It feeds on the blood of large animals, constantly living on their body. The deer bloodsucker has nothing to do with the tick, it just becomes like it when, settling on the owner, it sheds its wings. It flies badly, reluctantly, prefers to live in wool, feeding on blood. Despite the telling name, the deer bloodsucker attacks foxes, wild boars, birds and even humans.

Until now, getting acquainted with the world of flies, we have seen only the negative. Is there something positive about these insects? Let's answer this question too.

Green fly harm

However, the harm caused by the green fly is also evident. Constantly living among rotting remains, in cesspools, it becomes a carrier of pathogenic bacteria. Flies carry diseases such as:

dysentery;
typhus;
polio;
brucellosis;
intestinal myiasis;
helminthiasis and so on.

For these insects, there is not much difference in the freshness of the meat in which it will lay its eggs. For this, both a half-decayed animal corpse and a fresh piece of meat on your dining table will do. During heat treatment, the eggs will certainly die, but, you see, this is little consolation. In addition, many housewives try raw minced meat for salt, risking introducing into their bodies all kinds of bacteria and green fly eggs, some of which can take root in the intestines, causing intestinal myiasis.

Those who are engaged in breeding livestock are aware of cases when a seemingly small wound received by an animal through negligence turned into a big problem. It did not heal for a long time, the animal began to hurt and sometimes even died. The green fly, which laid eggs there, is to blame for this. The larvae hatched from the eggs turned the wound into a digestible compote, thereby worsening the condition of the animal.

There is a known case when a patient of a Canadian clinic, a green fly laid eggs in the eyes and nose. One hundred and twenty larvae hatched from them. At the time of discovery, each larva had already reached a size of about 5 millimeters. This suggests that after the eggs of the green fly were laid, it took about one and a half to two days. Upon admission to the clinic, no larvae were observed in the woman's body, which means infection directly in the institution. However, the doctors disclaimed all responsibility for the incident, citing the fact that there were no windows in the woman's ward, and the fly could not get into the clinic.

Hematophages

Flies hematophages

Flies that bite are obligate hematophages. This species feeds on blood in the adult stage. The larvae develop in decaying organic matter. Obligate hematophages include horseflies, autumn flies and tsetse, which are often called killer flies.

In horseflies, females differ from males in that a person usually does not even see the latter. Male horseflies feed on nectar and do not attack mammals.

Some horsefly species have green eyes, which is why they are often confused with other large flies with green eyes - the gadfly-aphages.

All obligate hematophages have an oral apparatus adapted to the extraction of blood.

Facultative hematophages are not able to independently extract blood from the victim's body. They feed on secretions from the skin and mucous membranes. They willingly drink the blood that comes out of fresh wounds. In addition to secretions, they feed on mammalian excrement and plant juices. The larvae develop in feces.

A typical representative of the facultative hematophage is the market fly, which is very similar to the housefly, but lives only in the southern regions. Distributed throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus. In Russia, it lives in the subtropical zone.

Coprophages

Obligate, among others, include some species of the family of true flies that live in pastures. These insects contribute to the decay of excrement in nature and it is difficult to attribute them to pests or dangerous flies. But sometimes they fly into houses, carrying the eggs of the worms. In addition, these species of flies often settle in premises where animals are kept.

Housefly

Facultative flies are much more dangerous, since adult flies feed on excrement, but also willingly consume human food. Often, these species arrive for food directly from the manure heap. The food of the larvae is excrement.

On a note!
The most typical and widespread representative of facultative coprophages is the house (house) fly.This is one of the most widespread species of flies in Russia, so adapted to life in human homes that it practically does not occur in nature.

House fly appearance

In the photo of a brownie fly, with macro magnification, you can clearly see all the details of the color. But when viewed with the naked eye, the fly looks gray.

It is a small insect with an average length of 7 mm. Houseflies are gray with four longitudinal black stripes on the chest. The belly is yellowish on the underside. The eyes are large, dark red. The eye device is faceted. The male differs from the female in the distance between the eyes: in females, the length of the organ of vision is equal to the distance between them; in the male, the eyes are 2/3 of the length.

Food

The house fly is an insect that is not able to bite through human skin, although the female needs protein food for reproduction. This species of flies feeds only on liquid food. When solid pieces of organic matter are found, the housefly dissolves them in saliva before use.

In this way, she can "bite" a person. Trying to dissolve the skin with saliva, the fly causes severe pain. An acid burn would have caused the same sensation. But there are no marks on the body from such a "bite".

How to protect yourself from harmful insects

The main rule that must be adhered to in order to protect the area from a large accumulation of flies is perfect cleanliness. You can also use the following preventive measures:

Plant a walnut tree in your yard, as flies cannot smell it.
Castor oil plant, currant and bird cherry are well repelled by flies.
In multi-storey buildings, regular treatment with disinfectants is required of the territories that are in the immediate vicinity of the garbage chute.
Since flies do not like the smell of vinegar, it is advisable to grease it with a solution of windows and doors in rooms.
Floors pretreated with turpentine mastic scare off flies well.
It is advisable to ventilate the room as often as possible.

Fly larvae in cesspools or temporary latrines can be destroyed with disinfectants, which must be poured into there several times a month.

Methods for preventing the spread of the carrot fly

If you do not want to encourage flies, then you should use simple rules when growing a plant:

You cannot sprinkle fresh manure on the beds in your garden.
You need to adhere to the above rule and plant carrots next to the onions.
It is recommended to plant carrots early enough so that by the time the parasite appears, the sprouts are already strong and do not die quickly.
After weeding, it is best to remove the dead plants from the carrots, as their smell attracts flies.
You don't need to water the carrots a lot, especially in July-August.

House fly lifestyle

The life of a house fly is closely related to humans. Her body size is about 10 mm, weight varies depending on the condition. A hungry individual weighs about 12 mg, after eating home supplies, waste, and also before laying eggs, the weight increases by 1-2 mg. These annoying insects can reproduce only if they are close to people. They are not adapted to life in the wild.

Where does it come from and where does it live in the apartment?

In an apartment or house, flies start up, as a rule, in the warm season. They enter living quarters in two ways:

Through ventilation shafts, windows, open doors and cracks. They always live near their place of birth, therefore they are in the immediate vicinity of the house. They are especially frequent guests in private houses, next to which there are outbuildings, such as a barn, a pigsty, a chicken coop, a toilet.
With a bouquet of wild flowers or harvested. If the larvae of flies were on vegetables or fruits brought into the house that were not washed immediately, then soon adults will appear from them.

What does the insect eat?

The housefly is active during the day, it constantly moves in search of food and a place to lay eggs. Many products serve as food for the housefly, therefore, by the type of nutrition, it is a polyphage. Insects prefer liquids. They love to feast on fruit juice, syrup, honey. If there is no liquid food, they eat cookies, bread, sausage and other foods from the table. The structure of the oral apparatus does not allow them to bite through the skin of a person, therefore they do not feed on blood.

All food is first digested and then swallowed. For this, the insect introduces a special secret into it. The larvae of the flies living in the house feed in the same way. Food digested from the outside is easily absorbed by the oral apparatus.

How houseflies breed: the life cycle from eggs to imago

The life cycle of flies includes 4 stages. The adult is ready for reproduction 24 hours after the pupa opens. Females lay eggs; they are capable of producing up to 120 eggs per day. To do this, they choose rotten food, garbage pits, compost and manure heaps. Fly eggs mature in this environment for 8 to 24 hours. Then the larvae emerge from them, which are called maggots, they look like small white worms.

The larvae feed on the mass in which the female housefly has laid a clutch. They avoid sunlight, so they tend to bury themselves deeper into this mass. The worms actively feed, survive three molts, grow and pupate. The duration of the larval stage of the cycle is from 5 to 25 days. In the pupa, maturation lasts about 5 days. After that, an imago appears.

The average life span of a winged pest is from 8 to 30 days. The generation that appears in the fall lives the longest, it hibernates and wakes up in the spring for further reproduction.

What flies can get in flower pots

With garden soil, a huge number of different pests can get into flower pots. But most often, three types of insects start to breed in them:

fruit flies - fruit or fruit flies, similar in appearance to small flies;
sciarids - the so-called mushroom gnats;
whiteflies - they look like very small butterflies with two white wings.

Drosophila in nature are ubiquitous, feed on plant sap, decaying plant debris. Fruit flies are characterized by a short life cycle and extraordinary fertility.

Sciarids are relatively little studied and include up to 20,000 species. The most famous are mushroom, cucumber, potato, greenhouse. In this biological species, adults do not feed, and the larvae eat fungal mycelium, the roots of higher plants, and decaying plant tissues.

Whiteflies, or aleurodids, live on the underside of leaves and feed on plant sap. Some of their species are dangerous quarantine pests.

Flies: introduction

Let's start with what is noticeable even to the naked eye: the size and color of real flies. Even if you do not delve into their varieties, one thing can be said for sure: the insects flying around the house and annoyingly sticking to humans are different. That is why the housefly is just a generalization.

There are, for example, inconspicuous black individuals, the most common, sitting up windows and buzzing under the ear in the morning. And there is an emerald color - even a little dapper, shimmering in the sunlight. But such beauty is deceiving, because the green fly has another name for meat, and it is she who most often feeds on corpses and lays its eggs in decaying flesh. On the one hand, it is a sanitary insect, and on the other, its specialization is too disgusting and dangerous, although it is just the cadaverous species of insect that are useful.

Nectarophages

Silt fly
This group includes the silt fly - an insect similar to a bee, but with two yellow spots on the upper side of the abdomen. Sometimes these spots have a reddish tint.

The honey-bucket can only harm a person if its eggs enter the gastrointestinal tract. Considering that the larvae of the ooze develop in pits with sewage, the probability of ooze eggs getting into fresh food is very small.

Origin of the species and description

Photo: Drosophila fly

The fruit fly can start in any home, and in vegetable or fruit warehouses, in stores, it is a permanent inhabitant. This animal is familiar to any gardener and gardener. Such a fly is quite annoying, it is extremely difficult to get rid of it. Despite this, fruit flies are highly prized by scientists. They are unique scientific material. Various experiments and scientific experiments are being carried out on this animal today.

Video: Drosophila fly

The fruit fly is called differently: small fruit fly, fruit fly, fruit midge, common fruit fly. In Latin, the name sounds like Drosophila melanogaster. It is an insect with two wings, a species of midge belonging to the genus Drosophila. Drosophila belongs to a large family of fruit flies.

Today there are quite a few varieties of fruit flies. Scientists have more than a thousand species. Most of the species live in subtropical and tropical climates. In particular, more than three hundred species of such an insect live on the Hawaiian Islands alone. On the territory of the Russian Federation, one type of flies is most common - the flightless fruit fly.

The Drosophila fly has the following features:

a diet consisting of fermentation products;
high sensitivity to sour aromas;
fertility - one female is capable of laying several hundred eggs throughout her life;
the presence of clear visual differences between females and males.

Prophylaxis

While flies are easy to deal with, it's best to keep them out. To do this, you need to choose the right soil. It is best if the soil is from a store, since it has already been treated against insects.

If one of the plants is damaged, it should be separated. Before this, the leaves are washed with warm water. Thanks to this procedure, eggs that are on the leaves or next to the stem will be washed away.

For feeding, only ready-made fertilizers are used. Collecting them yourself increases the likelihood of flower fly eggs.

The appearance of blow flies

The large family includes 106 genera, 3 subfamilies. Outwardly, they differ in size and color. Cadaveric flies that live in our territory, outwardly, practically do not differ from indoor, domestic pests.

Body length from 5 to 25 mm. The average size of a flyfly is 20 mm.
Coloring gray with stripes, checkered pattern, black spots. Or shiny with tints of blue, green, yellow. Glitters beautifully in the sun.
The eyes are large, bright red.
The wings are transparent, slightly set aside.

A photo of a meat fly is presented below. The most common species in our area are gray, blue, green.

Viviparous flies reproduce miniature white larvae called maggots. Other species in this family lay eggs. Round, yellowish, no more than 1 mm in size. They are located in piles. The worms go through three molts, gradually increasing in size. At the last stage, the worms burrow into the soil, pupate, and emerge to the surface as adults. The entire development cycle from egg to imago, under favorable conditions, takes 11 days.

Meat fly

How to get rid of flies in the house?

To remove the flies that have settled in the apartment, you can use different methods of struggle. The following funds are considered the most effective:

Velcro strips. They are sold in the household departments. You can make this device yourself from cardboard, water, sugar and lemon juice.
Herbs. Diptera pests do not like the smell of castor oil plants, tansy, and toadflax. If you spread these herbs indoors, flies will fly around it.
Insecticides. For the fight against flies, special products are produced. The most famous of them are aerosols "Dichlorvos" and "Cobra", spray and means for the fumigator "Reid".

Where the scavenger fly lives

Green flies in an apartment, as a rule, do not take root. Even if one of these flies into the house out of curiosity, the conditions for her life will not suit her. The green fly needs dead rotting flesh in order to lay its eggs. Therefore, scavengers live near cattle burial grounds, but they are found in the garden on flowering plants, as well as near corrals for keeping livestock.

If suddenly you notice that green flies have appeared in the house, this may mean that, perhaps, somewhere in the basement or in the immediate vicinity there is a dead animal - a cat, rat, dog, etc.

What is the danger of an insect, how to deal with it, and its benefits

Musca domestika is a mechanical carrier of pathogens of intestinal infections such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, as well as a large number of eggs of worms, tuberculosis, protozoan cysts and diphtheria. Outbreaks of epidemics of intestinal diseases occur in the summer season, when the number of insects is high.

Preventive actions

To prevent the emergence and spread of Muscae domestikae, the following steps must be taken:

Maintain cleanliness in the room, throw away the garbage immediately to avoid the spread of odors that attract insects.
In the spring, when the indoor fly is activated, install mosquito nets on the windows and doors in the house, apartment.
Asphalt areas where waste containers are located.
In the warm season, pour disinfectants into cesspools and latrines located on the street once a month.
Eliminate suitable larval deposits.

Ways to fight

To exterminate buzzing insects, folk, chemical and mechanical methods are used.

To get rid of flies, you need to hang sticky strips in the rooms. You can buy them or make them yourself. To do this, mix lemon juice, sugar and water. The resulting mixture is applied to cardboard belts. They attract insects with a specific smell.
You can not catch houseflies, but scare away with the help of plant crops. They do not like the smells of tansy, castor oil and toadflax.
Pour vinegar into a glass jar and add a couple of drops of detergent. Cover the top of the container with cling film and make a small hole through which an adult fly can pass. An insect that has flown into a trap will not be able to get out and drown in the mixture.
Effective insect repellents - Chlorophos and Dichlorvos.

Useful uses of larvae

Despite the harmfulness of the housefly, its maggots are a popular bait that attracts a large number of fish species.

Folk recipes for fighting a fly

At first, you can try to get rid of midges in pots using traditional methods and start with the least traumatic for the plant.

First, you need to let the earth dry at least two centimeters and loosen its top layer a little. In such conditions, it is difficult for the larvae to survive, since they need a moist environment. Then catch all the flying insects. This is done using glue traps.

The simplest ones are a kind of flag made of a rectangle of thick paper on a toothpick. The paper is coated with chalk or molasses and stuck into the ground among the leaves. The traps are replaced as needed. Watering the plant all this time should be very moderate so that the top layer of the soil does not get wet. This is best done by placing the pot in a large container of water. The window sill and the surface of the ground are vacuum cleaned without a brush. It easily sucks in any flying insects.

After the destruction of adult midges in indoor pots, you need to tackle the land in which there are still a large number of larvae. The dried and loosened earth is watered with a solution of one of the proven folk recipes:

Garlic infusion.One head of garlic is crushed and poured into 0.5 liters of water. The infusion is kept for several hours, then the soil is watered abundantly, the whole plant is sprayed, and the remnants of the garlic pulp are mixed with the top layer of the earth.
Potassium permanganate solution. The plant is treated with a weak pale pink solution once a week.
Soap solution. Dissolve 20 g of laundry soap in one liter of warm water. The resulting soapy water is poured and sprayed weekly on the diseased specimen.
A drug for worms for pets. It is bred at a dosage suitable for treating cats and puppies and is watered weekly on the affected plant.

Folk remedies help with a low degree of infection.

It is also convenient to remove midges from flowers in pots using a plastic bag of such a volume that the entire plant will fit in it.

It is important to position the package so that no branches are trapped. Dichlorvos is sprayed under the bag and quickly tied with a rope in the middle of the pot

In such a greenhouse, all insects die within a few hours. It is necessary to remove the bag in another room, where the flowers did not stand, and in the same place, vacuum it and place glue traps. After two weeks, the plants treated with dichlorvos are returned to their place.

Flies that benefit: are there such

Sure. Many flies destroy spoiled food, devour carrion, and dispose of garbage. They are sanitary insects. Without them, humanity would be mired in decay and stench. Even synanthropic flies, the very ones that live in close proximity to humans, are not all harmful. And, if you do not take into account horseflies, gadflies and common domestic parasites, there are useful species among them.

Sewerage is the best place for an insect to live. Fly larvae work here with might and main, destroying waste products. Considering that feces is the source of many infections, this is a useful and necessary work. That is why it cannot be said that the dung fly is a useless pest.

Blue meat fly

Now about carrion flies, or meat flies. There are a lot of them. In addition to the well-known green, there is a blue meat fly, a striped fly (it is also a gray meat fly). Most of them are viviparous: they lay maggots directly into dead flesh. They are considered orderlies. By the way, the gray is a big fly, it is larger than many of its congeners and immediately catches the eye.

Hoverfly

There are also fly predators. For example, ktyr is a fly that destroys mosquitoes and midges. For a person, she is not at all dangerous, but the petty vile suffers noticeably from this assistant. The hoverfly is a cute creature that does not look like its relatives. She has very predatory larvae that feed on small soft insects, mainly aphids. Adults resemble wasps outwardly. The photo shows how attractive the hoverflies are. The wasp fly is close to them.

Bee

The beekeeper is no less cute. She is related to hoverflies, but not predatory. The fly feeds on nectar and is a pollinator. But a beautiful, yellow bee can also be harmful: if its larva enters the human intestine, it will become a parasite.

Spaniard Fly - Poisonous Beetle

But what about the spanish fly, which many have heard of. The insect has its own interesting history. It is believed to cause intense sexual arousal. Surprisingly, the spanish fly has nothing to do with flies. This is a beetle, and a very beautiful emerald, iridescent color. The Spanny fly belongs to the blister family: when attacked, it emits a liquid that strongly irritates surface tissues. The insect smells like mice. On its basis, the drug "Shpanskaya Fly" is produced, which is still considered an aphrodisiac. The remedy was also used to enhance potency, but it turned out that it has a bad effect on the kidneys and liver. Currently, "Shpanskaya fly" is one of the most famous drugs that induce sex drive.

Cicada

There are a lot of flies, and they are all different. We talked only about some of the species, including the melon fly, African fly, cabbage fly, burner and others. There is also such an insect as the cicada, which is often confused with the heroine of the story. And it's clear why. The cicada outwardly resembles a fly, although in fact it is not. This is a beautiful, large insect that can sing. The chirping of the cicada can be heard both at night and during the day. She prefers a hot climate. Belongs to the order of hemiptera. And although the cicada resembles a fly, it leads a completely different lifestyle.

Fly black lion

In addition to those listed, there are many more species of insects. For example, Swedish fly, red fly, mangrove fly, ground flies, black lion fly and others. These constant, close companions of man have left their mark even in culture: the phraseological unit "white flies", meaning falling snowflakes, is directly related to an insect and is quite poetic. We think it's worth reconsidering your squeamish attitude and getting to know them better. And, perhaps, a lot of interesting things will open to you.

Variegated wings

It is a family of flies with spotted wings. Most of them are small, only a few mm long. Some species can reach 2 cm. For humans, they are harmless, but they cause serious damage to crops.

Among the variegated wings is the Mediterranean fruit fly, which is exotic for Russians, with a red belly. Due to its size (up to 5 mm) and a similar color, the details of which are difficult to distinguish without a microscope, this fly can be easily confused with a fruit fly.

The Mediterranean fly is not included in the list of Russian pests, but it can be brought along with citrus fruits - the main food for its larvae.