How Do Flies Come to Be? A Detailed Explanation of the Fly's Formation Process
Flies are insects with complete metamorphosis, and most people feel a sense of disgust at the mention of them. Their life history can be divided into several stages: egg, larva, prepupa, pupa, and adult. Although their lifespan is only about 1 month, their reproductive capacity is astonishing, with a single pair of flies producing approximately 190 million offspring in total. Let's take a look below at how flies are formed!
How Are Flies Formed?
A fly's life can be divided into four stages, starting from adult flies mating and laying eggs, then going through egg → larva (maggot) → pupa → adult fly. This process takes only about 10 days, and can be shortened when temperatures are high. Moreover, a single mating allows a fly to lay eggs for life. One female fly can lay eggs 5 to 6 times in her lifetime, with 100 to 150 eggs each time. Ten days later, these 100-plus eggs become adult flies, so a single fly can produce thousands upon thousands of flies in its lifetime. Spring is the peak period for the first generation of adult flies to reproduce. Killing one fly in spring is equivalent to killing tens of thousands of flies in summer.
The Fly's Life Cycle
1. Egg stage: Fly eggs are milky white, banana-shaped or oval, about 1 mm long. The back of the eggshell has two ridges, and the membrane between the ridges is the thinnest. When hatching, the larva emerges from this spot. The development time of the egg stage is 8 to 24 hours, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity.
2. Larva: Fly larvae commonly have three instars. The first-instar larva is 1 to 3 mm long and has only posterior spiracles. After molting, it becomes the second instar, 3 to 5 mm long, with anterior spiracles and posterior spiracles that have 2 slits. After molting again, it becomes the third instar, 5 to 13 mm long, with posterior spiracles that have 3 slits.
3. Pupal stage: The pupa is the third metamorphic stage in the fly's life history. It is barrel-shaped, and its body color changes from light to dark, finally becoming chestnut brown, 5 to 8 mm long. Metamorphosis continues inside the pupal shell, and once the rudimentary form of the fly is formed, it enters the eclosion stage.
4. Adult fly: The adult fly has a pair of large compound eyes on its head, comprising about 4,000 small eye facets, and its vision is keen. Its sense of smell is located on the antennae, and its taste organs are mainly on the feet. One to two days after eclosion, it can mate, and a few days after mating it can lay small clusters of eggs.
Methods for Eliminating Flies
1. Environmental management: To eliminate flies, breeding sites must be controlled. Do a good job of sanitation inside and outside livestock sheds, do not free-range livestock and poultry, pile manure in manure storage tanks for timely removal and harmless treatment, do not dump livestock manure anywhere, and manage strictly so that flies have no opportunity to breed.
2. Eliminating maggots: Maggots are the larvae of flies. The simplest way to eliminate maggots is to regularly spray with a 1% trichlorfon solution. Heat killing is also very effective: cover livestock manure with very hot rice husk ash, but it must be sealed tightly to suffocate the maggots in the manure pit.
3. Eliminating fly pupae: A small water trench can be dug around the breeding site, so that when maggots crawl out after pupation they fall into the water and drown. You can also use small wooden tongs to pick out the pupae from maggot breeding sites and burn them, then add lime and water and press firmly, so that the pupae do not turn into flies and emerge again, eliminating future trouble.
4. Eliminating adult flies: A more suitable method is to use flypaper or mix 2% trichlorfon into sugared rice or spoiled fish and rotten vegetables as bait to kill them. Keep it moist to enhance the toxic effect, but do not expose it directly to the sun or rain. Trichlorfon or coumaphos can also be sprayed directly to kill flies.