# What do flies \*get\* out of umm... droppings?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [March 29, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006 "2001-03-29T19:23:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006/1 "2001-03-29T19:23:56Z")
I can’t believe I’m asking this… but per the SD homepage’s question of the day re files liking sugar vs poo. What exactly is it that files find so attractive about poo and what are they getting out of it? Protein, carbo’s what? I means it’s already been through the mill once, is there that much left for them to use?
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The link to the Staff Report is: [Do you catch more flies with sugar than with…](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mflyhoney.html) – CKDH
[Edited by C K Dexter Haven on 03-30-2001 at 07:03 AM]
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006/2 "2001-03-29T21:32:15Z")
Well, I was sitting here looking up “fecal matter analysis” and stuff like that, and after reading about Anasazi cannibalism and how the Space Shuttle astronauts collect all their poo, dry it, and bring it home with them, I’m just gonna have to stop, that’s all there is to it.
The short answer to the OP is, yes, feces still have plenty of nutrition in them from a fly’s point of view.
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### Author:  [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2001, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006/3 "2001-03-29T23:10:46Z")
There’s plenty of critters around the world that thrive on a poo diet, such as street dogs in India and Nepal. Read Jan Wong’s books on her travels in China for a very funny story about using a latrine in rural China and scrambling out with her pants around her ankles because the pigs in the pig pen below the latrine wouldn’t let her finish in their rush to chow down. Next time you dine out in Beijing reflect on the fact that most pork in China is raised on human feces.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006/4 "2001-03-30T00:06:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Al Zheimers \*
> \*\*Next time you dine out in Beijing reflect on the fact that most pork in China is raised on human feces. \*\*
Well now! That is interesting!
[sub]Quietly puts down disk of Emperor’s Kitchen sesame fried pork and walks away from PC.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Yanega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Yanega)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-flies-get-out-of-umm-droppings/60006/5 "2001-03-30T19:47:36Z")
Most flies visiting feces are there to feed on the liquid portion, which is amazingly rich in minerals and other nutrients. Flies, after all, have an exclusively liquid diet, and it’s hard to find a liquid as nutrient-packed as that which comes with poo. A small portion of the feces-visiting flies actually lay eggs in it, and their larvae develop in that rich medium, so there’s more than one reason a fly may visit a fewmet.