I am sure all of you know how evil the common housefly (for the latin among you - Musca domestica) can be. But I constantly come across people who forget the filth and disease that this hideous curse among species can bring to your dining table.
While humans start and end in the earth, the housefly starts and ends in the garbage. As many as 120-200 eggs transform into these revolting harbingers of squalidness at any one time. They most often do so in a bed of warm rotting garbage - the kind that is decomposing and already infested with a variety of other microbes from similar domains of filth.
The loathesome housefly can host up to 30-40 million bacteria in its body and additionally have another billion sticking over the detestable ~12 mm of its revolting body surface - majority of which is covered in dirty sticky coarse hair.
When a fly lands on your sandwich, it first vomits some of its last meal (could be your dog's or your neighbour's excrement) on your sandwich so it could bring up some digestive enzymes to break down the surface of your sandwich and dissolve it. It then treads all over the vomit and your food thus mixing in all the bacteria and parasitic spores and eggs that it picked up from its last shuttle stop, into your sandwich. It then sucks up the semi-solid goo that it created on the surface of your sandwich. As a final touch, it defecates all over your sandwich before leaving for its next victim's tortilla wrap.
Unlike what Neumann lead us to believe, the housefly was never human to begin with and will never be human in any way, especially because it chooses to kill its victims in a most inhuman way.
There are surely better ways to spend your last minutes than lie retching in a hospital and die of complications of gastroenteritis. Do yourselves a favour and avoid restaurants with flies, like the plague. Zap and spray those disgusting minions of excrement at home. Do everything you can to spread the rumours about this nasty demonic insect because all of them are unerringly true.
A good way of getting rid of houseflies without insecticides is to spray them with hairspray -- this affects their ability to fly and thus transfer vermin. You can easily sweep the sprayed flies into garbage, where they rightly belong.
And to the two ladies in the Kaminsky Park today afternoon, who swatted away the flies that landed on their food and continued to eat the entire thing - I hope you got home safe and didn't get any violent dysentery.
Yeah, you shouldn't hate the maggots so much (e:libertad), they are not so bad really. They only feast on dead tissue/dead matter. At least they don't fly around trying to kill people.
I know. My post was extreme. But I am serious. You most often don't die if a fly vomits on your food here in US, but it's not often the case elsewhere. I think its because you have an almost efficient sewage system. Imagine what would be the case if the flies *always* had a huge load of microbes *all the time* because they have free access to human/animal waste. Precisely the situation in some areas of the world.
To repeat the cliché, it pays to be always safe than sorry. Think back to all those cases of mild tummy aches that you have had after eating at a restaurant. 60% of the time, it might have been because the restaurant was lax enough to have flies swarming in their food preparation or serving area (given that their food handlers practice good hand hygiene).
tinypliny has her own maggot stories. maybe she will tell everyone?
hmm, i have swatted away flies and continued to eat. Gross, I know, but i'm still alive.... Flies are gross and dirty though.
And maggots... yeah they're gross too- but I must say- they do a good job cleaning up nasty wounds. You can even PRESCRIBE 'Maggot Debridement Therapy' :::link::: just in case you all want to puke.
I was in the ER one day seeing this sweet little jamaican lady... and this stupid fly kept buzzing around... it was annoying, i kept swatting it away... well a minute later I learned why.
I took the bandage off her leg-
and it was full of maggots.
I almost puked right there.
oh... that was... horrible..
Flies are disgusting and also a sign of poltergeist activity, but Jeezus tinypliny aren't you being a little bit harsh? We are supposed to throw away our food because a fly landed on it? We would all be dead if it were that dangerous.
On the other hand you have no idea how much i hate flies and what I will do to avoid them. I'm obsessed with making sure that I don't provide anything for flies to be attracted to where I live or work. They are disgusting and love to eat shit. It is so gross.
Maggots are even worse! People if you have maggots in your trash, than you need to clean your trash can! Maggots make me want to vomit. Calling someone a maggot is the worst insult.
ewww that is all soo disgusting!