What do flies eat. What do different types of flies and their larvae eat What do flies eat in a swamp

Annoying insects can live both in nature, independently obtaining food for themselves, and settle closer to human habitation and use those products that people forget to remove or throw away. Consider what flies eat, and what groups are divided into science depending on the organization of nutrition. The information is presented in the table.

Most often, house and house flies can be found in houses and apartments, but autumn stingers and some other species often fly in.

house fly

They are omnivorous, so feeding is not a problem for them. How do these insects feed?

• Taste buds are located on the paws, thanks to which the fly tastes the selected food.
• They suck up food with the help of a special forked proboscis tongue, which simultaneously softens it.
• The food then enters the digestive system.
• Due to the lack of teeth, they prefer liquid food.

What do house flies eat? Their favorite treats include:

• Sweet tea.
• Juices and lemonades.
• Fruit juices.
• Jam, jam.

Often, these insects are also interested in solid food, but it needs abundant moisture with saliva, so most often the fly will opt for a sweet liquid. However, if necessary, insects will feed on fresh or decaying fruits and vegetables.

Eating process and eating habits

The insect has no teeth and is forced to eat liquid food, sucking it up with a proboscis from 2 hollow tubes. Since ordinary indoor representatives are tiny, food is always and everywhere in the amount necessary for life. With the help of the proboscis, both the “wild” fly and the house fly feed.

If the insect is forced to eat solid food, it must first be moistened with saliva in the form of belching from the body. A sad rhyme comes to mind about how "the fly sat on the jam." After such a sitting, the product wants to be thrown away immediately.

These insects are omnivores. All types of organic food are suitable for them, but they prefer sweet liquid foods. Some species are recognized as true "gourmets", choosing only carrots or onions for saturation. There are individuals who have chosen the insides of a cheese head for reproduction, for which they are called pyophilids.

The preferences of domestic inhabitants extend to fresh fruits and vegetables, while they do not like stale and rotten foods. Since childhood, we know that flies are the main carriers. Houseflies are a synanthropic species. Some of the "wild" counterparts, such as mosquitoes and green-headed gadflies, can feed on blood by biting mammals.

Many types of annoying insects can surprise you with their taste preferences:

• Fast-flying insects lay their eggs in the larvae of large harmful insects.
• The offspring of the hoverfly flower eat aphids.
• Buzzing larvae eat locust egg-laying.
• The large Australian fly feeds on the juices of other insects.
• Maggots (bloat fly larvae) are used for medical purposes to clean festering wounds.
• Fruit Drosophila has long been chosen by scientists as a "guinea pig". With its help, they study oncology, immunology and drug addictions.
• The noble bee fly feeds exclusively on nectar, flying from flower to flower.

To rid your own home of annoying "guests", first of all, it is necessary to exclude foci of distribution in the form of food leftovers. In addition, a mosquito net should be installed in each window, which is an insurmountable barrier to insects. If, nevertheless, the house is filled with flies, it is recommended to fight the attack with the help of special adhesive tapes or effective mosquito traps that can quickly rid the home of unwanted presence.

Housefly

What does a housefly eat as a larva? During this period, sewage is food for her. For development, the larvae need protein, so they prefer to feed on decaying meat or fish.

Adult insects can sometimes find food by smell or see something tasty with their complex eyes, but more often they accidentally discover food. So, crawling on the surface of the table, the Diptera can "stumble" on a drop of cooking, which will become food. Unlike bees, a well-fed fly will not call on relatives, preferring to feed alone.

Other types of Diptera

What the fly eats, its favorite treats, depends on the specific species. For example:

• Drosophila feed on rotten fruits, while laying eggs in them.
• Fruits are found in those apartments where sour foods are found. These are small midges that multiply very quickly. They can also start up in baskets where onions, carrots, and other vegetables are stored.
• Carrion eats decaying food.

Thus, the question of what the fly eats cannot be answered unambiguously, it all depends on the specific species.

Some interesting facts

Among these insects there are many species with unusual food preferences. Consider what flies eat in natural conditions:

• There is a special species, cheese flies, that can breed and feed inside a cheese head. They are called pyophylides.
• A striped yellow-black syrphid, or hoverfly, diptera, similar in appearance to a wasp, eats flower nectar.
• The larvae of hoverfly flies are distinguished by an enviable appetite: during their development to an adult, each of them eats more than 2 thousand aphids.
• Dangerous as food prefers the blood of wild animals, cattle, and also people. The bite of this African inhabitant can cause incurable diseases of the nervous system and immunity.

There are real predators among the flies, for example, ktyrs, owners of a sharp poisonous sting. They feed on mosquitoes, midges, even bees and flies. Interestingly, some types of flies are cultivated by fishing enthusiasts. So, the blue spring fly is specially bred on bird droppings, pig manure, rotting organic remains serve as food for it, insects are also fed with sugar and powdered milk.

Life span

We examined what the Drosophila fly and some other species of these Diptera eat. We will find out how long they live and whether they can live without food.

The average lifespan of Drosophila under favorable conditions is short, only 10-20 days. However, if the temperature is up to 18 ° C, and there is a lot of food, pests can live for more than 2.5 months. Diptera almost never remain without food, since they find food everywhere both in human dwellings and in nature. If necessary, they can eat food in garbage dumps and landfills.

Diptera have a lot of natural enemies in the forests (birds, frogs, spiders), so they rarely live more than 10 days.

We examined what flies eat, made sure that these creatures are able to survive almost everywhere, because they are not picky about food.

Annoying insects that are often found by people are flies. Not only are they annoying, they are also carriers. different microbes and diseases. This is due to the fact that these insects feed on decomposition products, go to different infected places, love manure and other impurities. And after that they climb on food, clean linen, and dishes. At the same time, pathogenic bacteria may already be present on their paws, which can cause some kind of disease in the human body, if together with contaminated food or utensils they enter the body.

Where do they come from - depends on the type of fly

Not all flies eat the same food. Although they are not particularly picky, some species still have a particular preference for one or another type of food. For example, there are those love to eat meat oh and others sweet, third - sour. And some feed exclusively on decay products. Therefore, you should first figure out what are the names and how these or those individuals that are greedy for meat, lard, or fruits look like. Winged insects are of the following types:

• Drosophila. They love fruits, especially rotten ones. Reproduce very quickly. They are dangerous because they lay their eggs in food.
• Housefly. It lives almost all the time in a residential or non-residential area, therefore you can hardly meet them in the wild. They are quick to react and are very difficult to catch by hand. Predominantly eat what people eat.
• Meat. Their subspecies around the world there are 2000, and in Russia there are about 300. Favorite delicacy - lard, meat of animals, fish and insects. Outwardly, it is distinguished by a black-gray body and a head with large red eyes.
• Ilnitsa. Her larvae are dangerous vectors coli and other infectious diseases.
• carrion. Very often appears in dirty places, as well as where there is decomposition of organic matter. They are dangerous carriers of all kinds of diseases.
• sirfida. Very similar in appearance on wasps- with brown-yellow transparent wings and a black-and-yellow striped abdomen, but they do not have a stinger. Unlike other individuals, she still eats aphids or flower nectar. Can only bother people by attacking for sweet fruits or berries.
• fruits(they are also called “sours”). Small midges that always appear in the house when something turns sour. Mostly in summer, spring or autumn when it gets warm.

In general, all registered 75 types of fly order. Some of them may even bite when approaching a cold cyclone or autumn. The total lifespan of these winged creatures lasts about 1 or 1.5 months. The body length varies. Depending on the variety. So, meat individuals can reach up to 2 cm, and sours up to several millimeters in length. Due to their large eyes, they are considered to have excellent vision compared to other insects.

What do flies eat

If we say that flies are omnivores, we will not be mistaken. It really is. They are not picky about any kind of food, if it is organic. But most of all they are attracted to strong odors, including decomposition products, rotting and spoiled food. These insects do not have any teeth, but have a long proboscis-tongue, which is divided into two tubes. Through this tongue, they suck out food, so soft food is most acceptable to them. However, in order to taste food, they first taste it through the receptors that are on the paws.

The paws have claws, and under the claws there are formations such as pads that have a sticky surface. It is for these sticky pads stick to all sorts of germs and bacteria. However, these winged ones moisten solid food with saliva and only then eat softened food. Most of all, they like the following types of food:

• juices, compotes, lemonades, syrups;
• jam or jams;
• tea and sugar;
• any leftover food on the plates;
• meat and fish;
• dairy products, cheeses, etc.

From fruits, vegetables and berries these insects will also not refuse. They especially like rotten or overripe fruits or berries. They often also love graze by a trash can or garbage chute. However, some of their species especially prefer drain pits or toilets. In any case, as soon as you notice these guests in your house, you should take measures to destroy or scare them away.

How a fly eats - macro photography:

Flies attack our homes from early spring to late autumn. There are a huge number of species of these annoying insects, each of which has its own characteristics. For example, what a fly eats depends on what species it belongs to and what lifestyle it leads.

How house flies eat

House flies are practically omnivorous insects. They have no teeth. In the process of nutrition, a long proboscis takes part, performing a certain job. It is a tongue that is divided into two tubes through which the fly sucks food.

The presence of taste buds on the paws allows you to first taste the food. And only after that the proboscis is included in the work. House flies prefer liquid food, because solid food must be moistened with saliva before consumption. After softening with the help of a proboscis, the food is in the insect's digestive system.

House flies' favorite treats

Flies prefer to eat a variety of sweet foods in the form of liquids, as well as canned food. These include:

1. Fruit and vegetable juices.
2. Lemonades and compotes.
3. Sweet tea.
4. Jams and preserves.

It should be noted that they eat flies and solid food, which very often remains uncleaned by people after a meal. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, insects also like rot found in trash cans.

But these pests do not only eat up leftover food for people. Their paws contain pathogenic bacteria, which, if they enter the human body, can cause various diseases. Therefore, when you find flies in your home, you need to immediately take measures to combat them.

Since Zhigals are absolutely not picky about the conditions of their habitat, they are found all over the world. Most often they can be seen in places where animals are kept. These flies feed on blood: having chitinous teeth, they scrape off a small area of ​​skin from the victim and drink blood.

It is worth noting that this type of flies is considered quite dangerous for humans. Such insects are carriers of many serious diseases, such as trypanosomiasis, ulcers, sepsis. True, zhigals feed mainly on the blood of cattle, and they attack a person only if they are indoors with him for a long time.

Feeding blowflies

The diet of blowfly larvae and adults includes carrion, meat of dead animals, rotten fruit, and other decaying organic matter. In addition, the larvae of these insects eat the larvae of grasshoppers and beetles of various species.

Since the main life, including feeding and reproduction, in blowflies takes place on animals and food residues, the attitude towards them is twofold. On the one hand, such insects are carriers of a large number of diseases, and on the other hand, they act as orderlies of nature, accelerating the process of carrion decomposition.

Flies: Video

They are habitual insects that appear wherever there is a person. The answer to the question of what flies and their various species eat will help to understand their desire to live in human habitation.

Flies classification: species and food groups

The number of species of dipterous insects, which include flies, has several thousand. Some of them are synanthropic, that is, they tend to live closer to people and consume waste, while others live in the wild (forests and fields) and are constantly looking for food.

According to the organization of the feeding process, flies are divided into 3 groups:

• hematophages (bazaar, etc.) - blood-sucking, such flies in nature feed on blood, ichor and sweat, the diet of the larvae is excrement;
• nectarophages () - for adults, plant juices serve as food, less often - animal droppings, larvae develop and feed on organic tissues, since the female lays eggs on the wounds and mucous membranes of animals and humans;
• coprophages (pasture,) - feed on food waste or excrement, in nature they can also consume vegetable juices;
• necrophages (), in which adults feed on corpses, as well as food and meat waste, excrement;
• polyphages (room, etc.) - are omnivores, they consume food products and waste of plant and animal origin, as well as waste products of living organisms, secretions from wounds and mucous membranes as food.

Interesting!

Among the species of flies there are also predatory (ktyrs) that feed on mosquitoes, cats and even bees. And there are those who eat cheese heads all their lives, their larvae multiply and grow in them - cheese flies.

How does a fly eat

Representatives of Diptera do not have teeth, but this does not interfere with the process of eating food. The main organ through which food is consumed is the proboscis, divided into 2 tubes, through which food is absorbed.

The taste buds of the fly are located on the paws, so they try the food "by touch". While in the house, the flies feed preferably on liquid food, since solid food must first be dissolved and processed using special enzymes and saliva. They suck up the food prepared in this way with a proboscis, after which it enters the digestive system, is processed and excreted in the form of excrement.

Housefly diet

Although flies are omnivores, they prefer sweet and tasty food and dishes.

List of foods that flies love:

• fruit and vegetable juices;
• compotes and sweet lemonade;
• sweetened tea;
• jam, honey and jams.

They can also feed on leftovers from any food and dishes:

• sausage;
• soups, cereals, borscht;
• mashed potatoes;
• cakes and sweets, etc.

On a note!

To be completely satiated, flies need very little: bread crumbs or a drop of juice. However, you need to eat often, so insects are constantly in the process of searching for food, flying from one place to another.

In the absence of fresh food, they find rotting fruits or vegetables for themselves, leftover food in the bin, etc.

What does the meat fly eat

As their name implies, the main diet is meat, lard, as well as carrion and the flesh of dead animals (in the forest or in nature). Adults and their larvae can also consume other foods:

• rotten fruits and vegetables;
• larvae of grasshoppers, beetles.

Due to the fact that blowflies sit on corpses and rotting food with their paws, they become. However, in nature, they are brought in, destroying rotting remains (they can completely eat the corpse of a small rodent) and accelerating the decomposition of animal corpses.

Feeding zhigalok

Autumn flies are found on all continents, but more often they settle in places where animals are kept (cows, sheep, etc.). They appear in late summer and early autumn, and with the onset of cold weather they can move closer to human habitation.

The main diet for zhigalok - blood. To get to it, they have chitinous teeth, with which they scrape off a small piece of skin from the victim in order to get to the blood vessels.

They prefer the blood of cattle, and they are capable of biting a person only if they accidentally get into his home. This species is dangerous for people, because it is able to carry infections that are transmitted through the blood (ulcers, trypanosomiasis, tularemia, etc.), after bacteria are introduced into the wound, they contribute to the development of sepsis (blood poisoning).

Feeding the larvae

The diet of fly larvae also depends on the type of Diptera. In nature, flies lay eggs in those places where the larvae that have emerged from them can immediately begin to feed, that is, closer to rotting garbage or the remains of living beings.

The main food for house or houseflies is the vegetable juices of rotten fruits and vegetables, excrement, and decaying food waste.

Meat species of Diptera prefer to lay their eggs in rotten remains of meat, fish or offal. The hatched larvae perform the function of orderlies, because they eat waste and carrion in large quantities, due to which they quickly grow in size and develop, turning into pupae and adults (adults).

Who eats flies

At different stages of the life cycle of flies, many representatives of the animal world can eat. These are birds, frogs, spiders, predatory insects (mantises, ground beetles), and sometimes cats and dogs catch them for their own entertainment.

There are also on the American continent, the food for which are flies, ants, spiders, etc. One of these predatory plants is called the Venus flytrap, in honor of the Roman goddess of love and plants, Venus. Its leaves are traps, when they hit the cavity, they slam, and then the plant begins to digest food with the help of special plant enzymes.

The fly (Musca) got its name from the Old Slavic word "mus", meaning "gray". Diptera belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insects, order Diptera.

Fly - description and characteristics

The body length of a fly can be from a few millimeters to 2 cm. The insect has a pair of membranous wings, a rather large head, endowed with a mouth organ - a proboscis, designed to absorb liquid food. The body of the fly consists of three parts: the head, abdomen and chest, ending in three pairs of legs. Each leg of a fly is divided into five segments. One part is a foot, with two sharp claws and sticky pads. This feature allows the fly to move briskly along the ceiling and any vertical surfaces.

The fly's eyes are a unique organ. Thanks to several thousand hexagonal facets, the fly has a circular field of view, so its huge eyes can easily simultaneously see everything that happens to the side and even behind. The olfactory organ is the antennae, capable of recognizing odors at a great distance.

Types of flies, names and photos

There are 3,650 species of fly worldwide, some of which are particularly common:

• room(house) fly

gray insect, native to the Asian steppes. It is distributed everywhere, most often near human habitation. Outwardly, many species are similar to the house fly, but it is distinguished by a special break at the edge of the wings. Under favorable conditions, the insect can live up to 2 months;

• hoverfly (syrphid)

externally and habits similar to a wasp. The insect is distinguished by a black and yellow striped body and transparent wings. The hoverfly feeds on the nectar of flowering plants, it is absolutely harmless. The name of the fly was due to the murmuring sound made by the wings when hovering;

• green(carrion) fly

An insect with a shiny emerald body that lives near sewage and carrion. In order not to be eaten after mating, the male fly brings some food to the female;

• common silt (tenacious) or bee silt

considered a subspecies of hover flies. A large insect, up to 1.5 cm long, with a dark body covered with hairy pubescence. The larvae of the bee elnitsa that have entered the human body can cause serious intestinal disorders;

• ktyr

a large predatory fly that poses a danger to mosquitoes, midges, bees, as well as similar flies. Killing various dangerous insects with a sharp sting and poison, ktyri flies bring significant benefits to mankind;

• tsetse fly

inhabitant of the African continent. The main source of nutrition for this dangerous predator is the blood of wild mammals, as well as livestock and people. Tsetse flies are carriers of trypanosomes, which provoke an incurable disease that destroys the immune and nervous systems and leads to death.

Tsetse fly. Alan R Walker, CC BY-SA 3.0

Where do flies live?

Flies live on all continents except Antarctica, near animal burrows and human dwellings. This heat-loving insect does not tolerate sub-zero temperatures: already at +8, the laid eggs of flies die.

What do flies eat?

Flies are omnivorous insects and can eat any organic food. The solid food of the fly is pre-soaked with saliva. Sweet liquids and foods are especially preferred. Some types of flies are true "gourmets" and eat only onions or carrots. Pyophilids (cheese flies) breed only inside the head of cheese.

fly breeding

With the exception of some viviparous species, most flies lay eggs. Males lure females with a soft buzz. 2-3 days after mating, the female fly is ready to lay eggs in any food or organic waste.

One clutch contains approximately 150 eggs. During its existence, the female fly is able to lay up to 3 thousand eggs. A day later, fly larvae, maggots appear.

This stage of development lasts about a week, during this period the larva increases in size up to 800 times.

The larval stage passes into pupation and continues for another week. An adult fly, which does not change its size throughout its life, is born 12-14 days after laying eggs.

The first 2-3 days, until the wings are strong, the insect can only crawl. The average lifespan of a fly is 3 weeks.

Flies characteristics

However, a fly is not always just dirt and unsanitary conditions. Some types of flies and their larvae are food for animals, others pollinate plants. Scientists have proven that the fly is endowed with a rare gene code with increased immunity that recognizes and destroys harmful cells. The discovery gives a chance to save humanity from many terrible diseases.

Despite the obvious harm and potential danger, flies are considered quite interesting insects:

• since ancient times, some healers have used fly larvae to treat advanced wounds, using their ability to eat away dead tissue;
• flies were especially favored by the ancient Egyptians: the insect was considered a symbol of audacity and courage;
• voracious larvae of hoverflies during their development eat over 2 thousand aphids.