What are House Flies and Filth Flies?
House flies (Musca domestica), also known as “Filth Flies”, are one of the most widely dispersed insects on the planet and the most common of all flies found in New York homes and buildings. Adult House Flies are between ¼ – ½ an inch long with a gray body, punctuated by four dark lines running along its length. Both males and females have a small amount of yellow underneath the thorax, one pair of wings and red eyes but females are slightly larger than males with a larger gap between the eyes. Females can produce around 500 eggs in several batches of 75 to 150 at a time and within one day the larvae hatch from these eggs to feed. Fly larvae live in and feed on garbage, feces and dead or decaying organic matter for about 1 week, after which time they crawl into a cool dry place to begin the transformation into pupae. From that stage, adult flies emerge and begin to continue the cycle. House Flies cannot ingest solid foods so must therefore either take in liquid or semi-liquid foods or
