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Articles on Flies

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Flies will often sleep on the underside of leaves, to escape from heat and predators. Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC

Curious Kids: Where do flies sleep?

Flies need good grip because they often sleep upside down.
A scourge of kitchens everywhere, Drosophila melanogaster — the common fruit fly — stares down the electron microscope that captured its image. (Shutterstock)

How to kill fruit flies, according to a scientist

How do you rid your kitchen of pesky fruit flies? A scientist who researches them explains.
Many more where these came from. Shutterstock

Buzz, buzz, slap! Why flies can be so annoying

A good summer picnic, bushwalk or barbecue with friends and family can all be ruined by those annoying flies that never leave you alone. So what are they after?
They land on dead animals and poop, and then on our food. If we see a fly on our Christmas lunch, should we throw it away? Author Provided

Should I throw away food once a fly has landed on it?

It only takes a single fly to alight on your picnic lunch to make you uneasy about what germs may have landed with it. But what harm can come from a fly landing on your food? Should you throw it away?
A male Onthophagus vacca, the species of dung beetle being released this week in Western Australia. CSIRO

French beetles flown in to clean up Australia’s cattle dung

The average cow drops between 10 and 12 dung pads (also known as “pats”) every day and just one of those cow pads can produce up to 3,000 flies in a fortnight. With more than 28 million cattle in Australia…

Fly larva brain makes up for poor vision

The fly larva brain’s ability to process visual information can make up for low visual input. Researchers discovered that…

Hormones determine insect metamorphoses

Pulses of steroid hormones are responsible for differentiating an insect’s lifecycle metamorphoses, researchers at Washington…

Blue traps attract flies

Flies are three times more attracted to the colour blue than they are to yellow. Researchers used these findings to develop…
What’s in a name? A whole lot of booty, and some Latin, as it happens. asterix611

Beyoncé is a fly … but why?

Late last week CSIRO announced that a new species of horse fly had been named after pop diva Beyoncé’s bottom. The story generated a real buzz across traditional and social media both in Australia and…

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