What Bugs You?

[Chemical]

(Oh I sure did!)

What are your favourite bugs?
Or do you hate bugs?
Do you have any interesting facts on bugs?

My appreciation and admiration is for the common house fly. It's danger to mankind as well as its importance encourage a deep respect for this underappreciated little guy.

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common name: house fly

scientific name: Musca domestica Linnaeus

life cycle: The house fly has a complete metamorphosis with distinct egg, larva or maggot, pupal and adult stages and can metamorph into it's adult stage within 2 weeks, 1 week if the weather is accomodating. The most interesting stage is the larva stage. Larvae nest in a moist an plentiful food source, hopefully rotting flesh. They're advanced body shape, with a pointed snout and rounded bottom allows the larvae to jut around cutting up the flesh with a hook mouth. What's really fascinating, however, is the waste secretion of the larvae which mainly contains ammonia. The ammonia breaks down the flesh into edible and managable food for the larvae.


presented danger: More than 32 disease and 100 pathogens are associated with the house fly, including typhoid, cholera, bacillary dysentery, tuberculosis, anthrax ophthalmia and infantile diarrhea, as well as parasitic worms. Making the house fly the most threatening household insect.

health benefits: Ironically enough the fly can also save lives and "maggot therapy" is a technique used by prominant doctors to clean unhealing wounds. This is done by introducing live maggots to the infected wound which then clean the flesh by eating decomposing flesh and infected tissue, killing bacteria and thus stimulating wound healing. This technique has been used since 1931.