FLIES!!!!

For anyone who has stepped foot in the 5th ave store in the past month, you already know about the crazy fly problem. They have pretty much taken over the store and the bathroom is entirely full of them maybe 10 at a time!! Well, while sitting eating my lunch a flat bagel with butter, i became aware of the the six flies crawling on the floor around my feet and began to wonder, what the heck are flies good for anyway? Do they serve any purpose other than to annoy me and bite?

All insects are an integral part of our ecosystems. As part of food chains, insects provide sustenance (dinner) for countless other animals. For instance, just one crow can eat as many as 16 bushels of insects in one year. So--all insects are beneficial and necessary. It's just that with some insects--like flies--it's harder to remember that they are a necessary part of the world around us.

There are more than 100,000 different species of flies. They are found everywhere in the world--even in Antarctica. They belong to the order of insects called Diptera which means "two wings". Most insects have 4 wings. On the bodies of flies, however, over time, this second set of wings developed into small knobs called halteres that are located behind their main wings. These knobs help keep flies steady and balanced when they fly and make them very agile. They can maneuver themselves into intricate flight patterns, they can hover and spin, and they can even fly backwards.

Like all insects, flies have 6 legs and segmented bodies consisting of a head, a thorax and an abdomen.

Flies have hairy, sticky feet and are able to walk upside down. Their special feet enable them to land on smooth surfaces (like your wall) and not slide off.

Flies lay their eggs in soil, on plants, on the bodies of other animals, and frequently on dead or rotting flesh. Fly larvae are usually called maggots.

Different flies dine on different foods. Flies around the world eat nectar, plant sap, blood, other insects, and decaying matter. Did you know that a mosquito is actually a type of fly? Of the species of flies that eat blood, only the females are the blood eaters. They need the nutrients in blood to be able to lay eggs. The males of these species usually dine on nectar from plants and flowers. The species of flies that we call houseflies like to eat OUR food!

So the answer is this: though flies are a necessary part of the food chain they serve no other purpose and are really annoying. And Jeff Goldblum is super hot!