Shoo fly, don’t puke on me.
As if you don’t have enough to worry about, new research suggests the common housefly is more than a swattable nuisance.
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts say synanthropic flies don’t bite, but they can put the bite on your health … by puking in your food.
At issue is the biology of the common housefly. They have a storage tank called a “crop,” which they use to keep the food they’ve just eaten before they digest it.
When a fly lands on a piece of food in your home, it can choose to jettison what it’s just eaten to make room for your grub — so if it snacked on your dog’s poop before getting in your house, guess where that’s going?
Making matters worse, flies can also crop dust bad stuff when they fly around you as a method of expelling water.
Pretty gross.
“Blood-feeding flies have taken the limelight, but we should pay attention to the ones that live among us because they get their nutrients from people and animals that shed pathogens in their tears, feces and wounds,” says study author John Stoffolano, professor of entomology at UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture.
“It’s the little things that cause the problems,” Stoffolano adds. “Our health depends on paying closer attention to these flies that live with us.”