Has this ever happened to you? There’s a fly in the house, buzzing around you, so you go to the cabinet to get the swatter. But as soon as you start wielding it, the little bastard disappears. You set it down, and now he’s back, taunting you.

Ok so obviously flies don’t taunt, but do they have the capacity to recognize, even instinctually, that I’m holding a deadly weapon?

  • eroc1990
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    422 years ago

    Instinctively, I doubt it. But they can pick up on the air moving around from you trying to swat at it, which is why it’s such a pain in the ass to capture to release or kill one. They are able to tell well before they’re captured/caught that something is coming for them.

    This BU blog entry from 2012 gives a lot of interesting information on the many ways they are able to evade us.

    • @[email protected]
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      182 years ago

      We have 2 advantages: we can build tools for specialized purposes, like killing flies. We can analyze misses and predict where a fly will be when it tries to evade a strike.

    • Nioxic
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      162 years ago

      I just clap above them. Then they often fly an inch or two upwards… and get squished

      • eroc1990
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        22 years ago

        I’ve never been able to execute that successfully. Also not as easy to do when they’re on a vertical surface or the ceiling.

        • Nioxic
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          22 years ago

          This is true. But i have a fly swatter as well. Its just not alwayd near me and so i often end up just attempting to clap them.

      • eroc1990
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        12 years ago

        I try to catch and release, specifically larger flies (been having a flesh fly problem recently) because it’s just less cleanup.

    • @[email protected]
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      -12 years ago

      They’re easy to catch with a plastic cup and a piece of paper.

      I don’t think I have killed a fly in nearly a decade.

      • eroc1990
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        12 years ago

        Yes, and I’ve done that too, but I’ve also had a number of them fly away as the cup closed in on them, even when the cup isn’t moving quickly.