How Long Does a Housefly Live? A Detailed Insight into Houseflies

How long does a housefly live?

Now we know that several people still ask the question;

How long does a housefly live for?

How long can a housefly live?

How long does a housefly live indoors?

How long does a housefly live in a house?

Let us start with the first things first…

Several home-owners across the United States are familiar with pest flies of which the number one of these is the housefly. There are only two species which seem to spend the most time buzzing around people and their homes so to say.

The house fly and the fruit fly.

While the life span of a housefly is short, their ability to reproduce quickly makes them difficult to control.

We are not going to go into details about the housefly now but we will be exploring all the sides there is to s fly in general.

So, let’s start with the…

Life Cycle of a Fly

Watch video;

• Flies have four stages of development while they live.
• Female flies typically lay eggs directly on a food source which is always an open food left around in the home.
• Once they hatch, the larvae start feeding.
• They transform into pupae and then into fully grown adults.
• It takes house fly or fruit fly eggs anywhere between a day and a week to hatch into the larval stage.

And now, being a little specific, we will like to explore the difference between the two kinds of houseflies that plague the homes which are the Housefly and the Fruit fly and their life spans.

House Fly vs. Fruit Fly Lifespan

• The life span of a fly (Housefly or fruit fly) has some bearing on how much damage the pest can do.
• Their rate of reproduction also marks the severity of an infestation they bring about with them.

How long do house flies live? 

Quora must have reported the same lifespan of a housefly for the question How long does a housefly live.

But…

Following the recent conversations in the funtriviaforums which discussed this same cause of How long do house flies live, we gathered some screenshots to prove that the claims here are authentic and perfect.

Here are the screenshots…

 

 

 

• A matured and average housefly lives about a month.
• In that time, females can lay five to six batches of eggs.
• Although they’re more active in the summer, house flies reproduce year-round.

How long do fruit flies live?

• The lifespan of a fruit fly can also depend on the species.
• For example, fruit flies live a little longer than house flies.
• These insects die after about 40 to 50 days.
• Like house flies, they can yield several generations during this time.
• Just one female fruit fly can produce up to 500 offspring.

Housefly and Fruit fly Control

In addition to overwhelming home-owners with numbers, it is to be noted that the house flies spread disease and fruit flies spoil food.

I know many people will have this fact utterly confused.

Instead of wondering how long flies live and hoping the problem goes away, residents can act to prevent and limit issues.

Repairing window screens so flies don’t get inside, cleaning trash and garbage containers and regularly cleaning sink drains helps with exclusion.

However, established infestations may require special treatments.

Since handling pesticides can be dangerous you can get a pest controller online to get it done for you if you looked up using Google.

After saying the above, I believe there are several factors which affect the life span of a housefly and we will discuss them below;

Factors Affecting House Fly Lifespan ( How long does a housefly live )

Here is a video;

• Their Environment

Several factors influence the lifespan of house flies of which we do know that houseflies do well in the rainy season more than the dry seasons.

Of all the contributing factors, the environment plays an important role in determining the lifespan house flies enjoy.

House flies flourish in areas of warm temperatures and humid air mostly referred to as the temperate regions.

Tropical and subtropical regions represent the most ideal climates for house flies to live.

In warmer climates, fly development times shorten along with average lifespan.

A fly may live only a week as an adult in warmer, tropical or subtropical regions.

Quicker life cycles account for greater populations over time.

Conversely, cooler continental, subarctic, and polar/alpine climates predominant throughout Canada greatly elongate overall fly lifespan, primarily due to slower metabolic rates, especially during colder seasons.

During warmer months, Canadian house flies typically become more active and have a somewhat shorter lifespan.

• The diet

Who continues living when starved?

Adequate access to food sources also affects fly lifespan.

Garbage, feces, and remains of organic materials serve as main meal sources for house flies.

House flies tend to live in close proximity to humans and other animals.

Warmer climates often support more fly-friendly breeding grounds, as flies breed more in warmer temperatures.

According to a recent National Geographic article published in October 2010, close proximity to food may, in fact, reduce the lifespan.

The article summarizes a study that examined the diets of house flies in correlation with an overall length of life.

A typical housefly with adequate access to food lives around 45 days; however, flies more removed from food sources and unable to smell foods — the fly’s main means of locating sustenance — lived roughly 10 days longer.

The flies able to eat freely, as those representatives of house flies living in warmer climates close to open food sources, lived roughly 10 days fewer than the average fly.

• Season of the year

As stated earlier, this is one of the reasons that houseflies flourish very well.

Seasons also affect the average lifespan of house flies.

The flies are most active during the warmer summer months.

During winter, flies primarily hibernate.

Warmer temperatures promote more widespread access to food sources, as well, which accelerates fly metabolic rates and reduces life expectancy.

Hibernation often elongates the lifespan, as the insect’s metabolism slows down while overwintering.

Nigerian climates generally promote longer fly life, due to consistently cooler temperatures which feature less access to food sources.

In details;

How long does a housefly live?

The most common fly that most homeowners have to deal with is the house fly.

The house fly follows the same general life cycle as listed above.

They lay eggs in something particularly nasty, become maggots, then pupa and then adult flies.

If enough of the eggs survive, you end up with a house filled with a lot of flies.

On average, a housefly can live around 20-25 days.

Sometimes they can live up to a month.

So let us now discuss the life cycle of a Housefly in details

The life cycle of a fly ( How long does a housefly live  )

A fly goes through for stages of life.

• Egg
• Larva
• Pupa
• Adult fly

It all starts when a female fly finds a place favorable to lay eggs (Basically your leftover foods or some Faeces she found on the floor or a pit toilet).

A female fly likes to find a spot where the larvae can feed for a time, so it will lay eggs on rotting wood, Faeces, or food.

Some species of fly also lay eggs on corpses of animals or other rotting flesh.

The average female fly can lay anywhere upwards of 150 eggs at a time, which is why you can quickly end up with a fly infestation in your home or on your property.

These eggs look like very small grains of rice ( I have actually seen one myself before).

Once the eggs hatch, they come out as limbless white creatures known as maggots.

They will feast on the rotting food or flesh around them to continue to grow.

Maggots can remain in this larval stage for anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days.

The fly maggot then enters the pupal stage, which is a lot different from the larval stage.

Fly pupae appear larger, and their skin changes color, often yellow, red, brown or black and no longer look as cylindrical as they do as maggots.

The fly pupa tries to find a quiet, dark, place to go through this stage.

During this stage, flies start to develop wings, legs and the rest of the shape of your average housefly.

Finally, the fly turns into an adult.

They will then fly off and find places to feed and, eventually, for a new place to lay eggs and start the process all over again.

Wrapping up on how long does housefly live

I have never been a good fan of houseflies in my house and this is the reason they should not be tolerated.

Make sure you keep your homes clean and neat at all times and your windows locked so as not to allow these stupid flies a way to get into your house and infest things they find there.

I hope this review gave you everything you need on this issue.

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