Flies
There are over 120,000 species of flies worldwide. Many are considered pests because they pose a health risk to humans, pets and livestock. Flies can infest your home or business and spread diseases like Salmonella and E. coli. A few species may even bite humans and animals.
Blue / Green Bottle Fly
The green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata) is a common blowfly. It is 10-14 mm long, slightly larger than a housefly, and has brilliant, metallic, blue-green or golden colouration with black markings. It has black bristle-like hair and three cross-grooves on the thorax. The wings are clear with light brown veins, and the legs and antennae are black.
The blue bottle fly (Calliphora vomitoria) is also a common blow-fly. It is the same size as the green bottle fly. The head and thorax are dull gray and the abdomen is bright metallic blue with black markings. Its body and legs are covered with black bristle-like hair. The eyes are red and the wings are clear. The legs and antennae are black.
A female blue or green bottle fly lays her eggs where she feeds, usually in decaying meat, rubbish, or faeces. Pale larvae (maggots), soon hatch from the eggs and immediately begin feeding on the decomposing matter where they were hatched. After a few days of feeding, they are fully grown. At that time they will crawl away to a dry place where they can burrow into soil or similar matter to pupate into tough brown cocoons. After two or three weeks, the adults emerge to mate, beginning the cycle again. During cold weather, pupae and adults can hibernate until warmer temperatures revive them.
Fruit / Vinegar / Filter Fly
Females lay some 400 eggs, into rotting fruit or other suitable material such as sugary cracks and crevices in bars / restaurants or around pipes. The eggs, hatch after 12–15 hours The Larvae grow for about 4 days while moulting twice (into second- and third-instar larvae), at about 24 and 48 h after hatching. They feed on the microorganisms that decompose the fruit, as well as on the sugar of the fruit itself. The mother puts faeces on the egg sacs to establish the same microbial composition in the larvae's guts which has worked positively for herself. Then the larvae encapsulate in the puparium and undergo a four-day-long metamorphosis, after which the adults emerge and after about 8 hours are ready to reproduce and thus the cycle restarts itself.
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House Fly
The House Fly is approximately 6mm long has a wingspan of 10mm and has a slightly hairy grey / black chequered abdomen. It is normally found around areas of poor hygiene such as dustbins and waste areas where it will lay up to 150 eggs in discarded food. The eggs will hatch to larvae / maggots withing 8 to 48 hours and look white and opaque and pointed. It will adult fly will hatch after pupating after three-four weeks and the house fly will go on to live for 25-50 days. The season is normally from April to November.
Cluster Fly
This is around the same size as a house fly 6mm long and 10mm wingspan but has a bristly yellow and black marked abdomen with large reddish eyes. The Female cluster fly lays eggs on damp soil and leaf matter and within a week the larvae hatch, seek out an earthwork to pupate in. They will enter houses and other buildings to find harbourages for the winter in late September - November when the temperature falls.
