Because we are salty. Flies are like anything else, they need food to live and one of the things they eat is dead skin and salt which you are covered in. Plus, when it is dry and you are sweating you are a source of water too.
Firstly, it is important to realise that there are more than 110,000 species of fly, and not all of them are a pain, in fact many of them are helpful.
The one that we see 90% of the time is the house fly (Musca domestica). It hangs about because as James mentioned, it wants to eat.
Flies are constantly on the hunt for something to vomit on (this is how they eat, the vomit liquefies the food and they suck it back up), poop on, and lay eggs on. This is bad news for us because they can transfer parasites, bacteria, and viruses.
Because we are salty. Flies are like anything else, they need food to live and one of the things they eat is dead skin and salt which you are covered in. Plus, when it is dry and you are sweating you are a source of water too.
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Hi Shaunm,
This is a good question.
Firstly, it is important to realise that there are more than 110,000 species of fly, and not all of them are a pain, in fact many of them are helpful.
The one that we see 90% of the time is the house fly (Musca domestica). It hangs about because as James mentioned, it wants to eat.
Flies are constantly on the hunt for something to vomit on (this is how they eat, the vomit liquefies the food and they suck it back up), poop on, and lay eggs on. This is bad news for us because they can transfer parasites, bacteria, and viruses.
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Nice explanations, James and Dustin! 🙂
Insects communicate a lot using chemicals, so I would guess that they can also detect us chemically.
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