I don’t know what the problem is this year, but we’ve got what seems like thousands of them in our house. Maybe someone’s laying eggs somewhere, I don’t know.
After a murderous rampage this afternoon, I noticed there were four or five gathered on the windowscreen. Since I couldn’t squash 'em, I simply…closed the window.
So they’re stuck there, and we can’t even hear 'em buzzing. Serves 'em right.
My question is, how long can they live in there? The screen is open, so they’ve got air. But there’s nothing to eat, unless they start eating each other, and THAT I’m looking forward to. The last one alive gets smooshed with massive prejudice. I hate cannibals.
I’d like to know - they’ve appeared out of the blue (better be out of the blue - please don’t tell me there’s maggots in there!) all over my house and none of them are going for the flypaper. Some of them have gotten caught between the window and the plastic I have up over the windows for insulation which has a few imperfect seals around the edges, and they haven’t found their way out. (You should hear the noise their wings make against hte plastic - drives me batty.) They’ve been alive for way, way longer than I expected. Days.
I don’t know that much about Musca (most people call big houseflies horseflies but they seem to be just big old houseflies – Musca domestica – horseflies usually bite and females need a blood meal while Musca lives on standard issue garbage).
The fruit fly Drosophila, though, lives up to about a month. Adults don’t eat much and can get water off of dew collecting on the screen. It is obviously far from optimal conditions but I betcha can expect at least a week of fun.
Nah, that was a movie. In real life, you can’t hear anything over the buzzing.
Hmmm…But if I could convince all the spiders from the basement to move up into the window…
Thanks, edwino. I knew that someone in this group would be able to give me the info I need. They do, indeed, seem to be fruitflies. And we’re down to three. No cannibilism yet, but I suspect a couple have snuck out of the window. These old sashes do not seal like they should.
My houseflies are still alive and kicking. For that matter, last night late at night I went to the bathroom, forgot I’d put a fly strip up in that doorway, got it stuck to me, ripped it down trying to get it off me off me off me, and stepped on the thumbtack that had been holding it up.
Flies - 1, Zsofia - 0
There is, however, one on the fly paper in the kitchen that’s stuck by its wings and still kicking its legs. I feel a little bad about that.
