Types Of Flies in Tennessee – Flies within the home can become an annoying nuisance rather quickly. To them buzzing around the home uninvited, to continuously landing on your food while you are trying to eat, they are rather unpleasant to have around. Unfortunately, there are many different species of flies. Depending on the species, it can determine if they are more or less of a nuisance within the home. Firstly, there are domestic flies. These are your house flies, fruit flies, and blowflies. Secondly, you have your biting flies. These are your horse flies, black flies, and your sand flies. Domestic flies and biting flies may be similar, however, they are very different. So, let us learn a little bit more about each of these flies.
Types Of Flies – Domestic Flies
Houseflies
This ¼-inch-long fly has a striped body and feeds primarily on animal feces and garbage. They are most active in the late summer and early fall. Surprisingly, they don’t have very long life spans, they only live from seven to 45 days. One of the key factors that attract them within the home is either left-out food or smelly garbage. Cleaning your home consistently is the best way to deter them from coming inside your home.
Fruitflies
Fruit flies are ⅛ of an inch in length and often have a yellow or dark yellow tint. These flies are found primarily around decaying fruit and vegetables. They thrive during late summer and early fall and are incredibly small. Luckily, these pesky flies only have a life span of two weeks. If you are consistently finding them within your home, they may be hiding somewhere with a good food source.
Blowflies
Blow flies are known for their metallic blue or green color, are active in the spring and summer months. Their primary food source includes animal carcasses and rotting meat found in the garbage. Thankfully, they can only live for two to four weeks. If you are noticing an unusual amount of blowflies on your property, there may be a dead or rotting animal nearby. The best method is to quickly remove the animal, and this will help eliminate your blowfly problem.
Types Of Flies – Biting flies
Horseflies
These flies primarily feed on warm-blooded and domesticated animals (such as horses), but they are also known to prey on dogs, cats, and even humans. They bite and cause extremely irritating, painful bites. Eliminating their harborage areas or breeding sites can help knock down their population. These flies are a little bit bigger than the average fly and can be quite a surprise if caught off guard.
Blackflies
Black flies feed on domesticated animals, as well as dogs and cats. Their bite causes extreme irritation and pain, sometimes even resulting in a rash. They are incredibly small and hard to see making it hard at times to get rid of them. However, like any fly, they are attracted into the home by left-out food or other soothing aromas. Cleaning your home consistently will help limit your interactions with these less than pleasant insects.
Sandflies
Similar to the black fly, sand flies are among the tiniest of the biting flies and snack on humans with sucking mouthparts. They are also known to feed on reptiles, other mammals, and even birds. Sand flies’ bites can be quite severe and take several weeks to heal.
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