I heard ages ago that you could bring a drowned fly back to life by sprinkling salt on it… naturally I thought this was a load of hoey, but then I tried it and, amazingly, it worked. I think the fly had been ‘dead’ for at least half an hour and it took about 20 minutes for it to to come back to - life but it did work. I understand that the salt probably draws the water out of the fly but I don’t see how that helps. Is the fly really dead? Does anyone know how this trick works?
P.S. I didn’t intentionally drown the fly, it was like that when I got there - I literally couldn’t harm a fly.
If the fly was really dead, it wouldn’t be possible to revive it, I’m pretty sure of that. I suspect what is happening is that the drowned fly actually goes into a completely inactive torpor due to lack of oxygen.
Insects breathe through spiracles - a series of small holes in a row along their abdomen and thorax - these open directly into small branched airways (pseudotrachae) inside the body of the creature - I suppose it is possible for these to fill up with water to the extent that diffusion allows sufficient oxygen in to maintain the metabolism of the insect, but not enough for it to be active at all; the salt will draw the moisture out, allowing the insect to breathe properly again and become active.
IMHO, this is how David Blaine does his magic trick of bringing flies back to life. Notice in the videos and TV shows that most of the flies that he finds are on or around drinking fountains.
One of those “Magic Tricks Revealed” shows claims that he basically freezes them, then warms them back up with his hand. I like your theory better though.
When I was 20 ('bout 17 years ago), I won a bet with the fly trick. Unfortunately, the only fly we could find was big enough to strap a saddle on. It took about 45 minutes of rolling the fly around in salt (we used tinfoil cupped up and salt).
For 45 minutes my friends were counting there money. Suckas.
