What is the staple diet of House Flies (1 Viewer)

[christineredgate]

This is a serious question.For the last couple of weeks I have had one little house fly who seems to spend his time between the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom.Every time I open a door he pops out.There is nothing for him to eat in the house,no plants,food-apart from fruit-is kept covered until it goes into the fridge,so how is this little chap surviving?.I have not the heart to attack him with the fly spray,he is so persistent,refuses to leave the house when I leave a door open for him.
Very curious.
Thankyou,
Christine

 

[christineredgate]

This really is a serious question.How do House flies survive,what is their diet?.There must be someone ,somewhere who can answer this question.Attention ,BF members,you are the elite of the wildlife ,so please can someone answer my query.

 

[Keith Dickinson]

Hi Christine,
I was always under the (possibly mistaken) belief that flies could exist on the smallest amount of detritus accumulating in corners etc. Most dust is skin cells so there is lots of protein in them.

 

[Geoff Brown]

Christine, be ruthless get rid or else you could have maggots popping up in all sorts of unexpected places. Ugh!!

 

[Isurus]

I'm pretty sure they don't eat staples Christine.

 

[christineredgate]

I'm pretty sure they don't eat staples Christine.

You had me worried for a second or two,no, I do have the correct word-
staple-of prime importance.
So do house flies feed from dust particles?.No danger of maggots,they are from Bluebottles,surely,this is just one tiny little fly.
But I did just wonder how they survived re food etc,esp within an area where there is nothing ,no plants etc.
Thankyou for your replies.

 

[PeterK]

Hi simple answer is you need to identify your fly, they all live off different food sources. if it was a fruit fly any small amount of fruit juice or grains of sugar would keep it fed, they dont need much food to survive. It was always consider good luck in our house to have a winter fly about the place, so treasure it.

PeterK

 

[JCLynn]

If it's still about for another week, it's a longlivity record! House flies live for 7 days ( average ) unless hirbernating. Central heating severely messes up their hibernation clocks and shortens their lives even more.
To pinpoint a Houseflies diet, just remember that any food source must a be soluble, and b contain sugars, fructose,glucose,dextrose,sucrose, or any combination.
Doesn't help much I'm afraid, as that just about covers every food source found in a domestic situation.

 

[John P]

.No danger of maggots,they are from Bluebottles,surely,this is just one tiny little fly.

In which case any maggots will be correspondingly smaller.

I have a little mantra I use with regards to flies and food; it's worth remembering, (just in case you are unaware of how they feed, by spitting out saliva onto solid foods to predigest it, and then sucking it back in), so when a fly lands on your butter just remember it's:- "dog poo out, butter in".

 

[Isurus]

You had me worried for a second or two,no, I do have the correct word-
staple-of prime importance.
So do house flies feed from dust particles?.No danger of maggots,they are from Bluebottles,surely,this is just one tiny little fly.
But I did just wonder how they survived re food etc,esp within an area where there is nothing ,no plants etc.
Thankyou for your replies.

Sorry Christine - I couldn't resist the pun. Cheersm8 has pretty much covered the proper answer spot on I think.

 

[christineredgate]

I think he met his maker in a glass of Scotch and ginger,so he had a happy ending.!!!Many thanks to all who replied to this thread.I was genuinely interested as to how these little guys did survive.I guess he was here for around 2 wks.