After reading this article, you may never leave food uncovered
again. That white stuff you had always thought was some sort
of seasoning your mother was cooking with might not be seasoning
at all. Since many people don't have a clue what fly eggs
look like, we thought it was important to post this article.
Unless you firmly believe in the theory "What you don't
know doesn't hurt you," you can stop reading now.
The housefly is a nuisance and its body is festered with
bacteria that can be transmitted to our food. It seems they
always know when we are eating, as they suddenly appear from
nowhere, trying to taste whatever we are having. What's worst,
these annoying pest have the audacity to lay their eggs on
our food. That sweet piece of meat you were saving for last
is a prime target for flies. All you have to do is leave your
food unattended and uncovered for a short while and a fly
is ready to add a few extra ingredients to your meal. The
fly, a master at hiding its eggs, prefers to deposit them
in the crevices of meat or whatever food it chooses to lay
them on. You need a keen eye to find an egg deposit.
Life Cycle
A female housefly can lay a batch of 75 to 150 eggs at a time.
A single female can lay several batches totalling up to 500
eggs in about 3 to 4 days. Eggs are laid on any suitable food
source such as decomposing food in garbage, animal excrement,
carrion and other decomposing organic matter. Shown below
is an egg deposit on a chunk of corn beef. Food is never pretty
close up. The eggs are very tiny so the photo includes a pencil
to give an idea of the eggs' relative size.
Eggs
hatch into larvae or maggots within one day. Full-grown maggots
are ready to pupate in a few days. Before transforming to
the pupa stage, the maggots crawl from their food source to
find a cool place to dry. This is the stage were we often
see them crawling out of our garbage. In optimal conditions,
adult flies emerge from the pupae completing the process of
egg to adult in about 7 to 10 days. Adult flies usually live
for 15 to 25 days.
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