Aren't Flies Only Supposed To Live For One Day?

At least here in the north central plains of the US, I'm in Minnesota, flies live longer than that! Its gross but years ago we moved into a house during fly season. It just so happened to be a bumper crop of them that year! With doors wide open it seamed they all liked our house! We had flies for 2 months buzzing everywhere inside. We worked very hard to kill all of them but. We must have had eggs every where. The following year we had very little flies flying everywhere. By the end of the summer we got rid of them all. They had since come out with a new gadget that is shaped like a tennis racket with a metal net. You put two batteries in it and when it makes contact with a fly it is instantly killed. Most of the time you get a snap sound announcing you have killed it. I don't know how much more effective it is but it is very satisfying when you make the kill!

i don't know for how long they live. but we used to have lots of it specially when i was very young. i would about 10 flies at time or even more flying around our kitchen. but now our neighborhood are with cleaner surrounding. as our city is not that good as other countries, before our neighborhood has lots of flies, as being in the philippines, if people some vacant place where no one lives or where no one has bought the vacant land yet to build a house, they will usually throw their garbage there specially before when the garbage collection won't go round daily and sometimes they won't come for a full week. but this time a lot of things have changed. garbage collection is daily thing . no more vacant lot where people throw their garbage. and i guess people are more disciplined now. and our home has already screen on each window to prevent flies and insects coming in. i hate flies as they are disgusting and they often stay on food like breads, and any food they see on the table that is not properly covered as we had the habit before leaving the food uncovered if we plan to get back to the table after a few minutes. now we had learned our lessons time ago. and it is just natural for us to keep the food covered , to keep the break on some plastic container so to prevent the flies from going on top of the bread.

Hi Janey... Great to read from you... Yes, I too have heard that a fly doesn't live for more than 24 or 36 hours... Wonder, why this one has troubled you for 3 days??? Maybe, this one has over come the limit...

I think flies last longer than that, especially if they can find something to eat. Even a slight mark is a feast to a fly when your think how tiny their mouths and stomaches are. I have an image in my mind of Mr. Bean seeing this fly buzzing around, waiting for it to land on the window and throwing a brick at it! _Derek

I always thought this too, but after reading the other responses here, it appears that we have both learned something about the common fly. Thanks for starting this discussion so that I could learn yet another piece of nearly useless information Jane!

well however it may seem they are to live only one day but they live around 20 days each and soon they multiply enough to produce more eggs an then more files and then more trouble to food and health thats it try to live with it and soon you will feel that you and flies can coexisit and you will soon realize that you and flies are now fiends for ecah 20 days you making ne frieds like those classic movies where you see a beetel being befriendie with a child and maybe you can use those flies to spy on others

It is fruitflies that live for one day. House flies and horseflies seem to live forever, buzzing all the way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housefly 2 weeks to a month in the wild and longer in a nice, safe lab (baring those pesty scientists...)

depends-i think the larger horsefly can go 3. speaking of which..these lazy cats haven't tried. if it's not a moth,they could care less.

When I was in high school I remember typing on the computer and this fly would always come land on my fingers while I was typing. It just sat there while I typed. It did this every night and I called it my pet fly. I took a picture of it on my hand while I was typing one night lol. One day my mother killed it lol. Anyway a few years later I got a tatoo of a fly on my arm. Its the one tattoo that I still like after 10 years.

I am not sure how long fly live but since it's an insect then it's limited like ant. i think you should try cleaning your house and its surroundings so that flies will go away, you may try some insect repellent too.

I think it's about 15-20 days. The 1 day fly is a different species altogether.

I have never heard of flies living one day. I think butterflies do. But I know how annoying flies can be. Especially when you are asleep and they keep buzzing in your ears. I do everything to get it and slap it with a newspaper.

20 days is a long time for a fly

I thought that also. But I just looked it up and wow it's 15 to 20 days. Good luck living with your pesky friend for that long. Better get a swatter.

I think you are being bugged by one of the house flies or horse fly. The "one day life span" is a different species, one of the fruit flies