CHICAGO (Reuters) - The brains of flies are wired to avoid the swatter, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
At the mere hint of a threat, the insects adjust their preflight stance to flee in the opposite direction, ensuring a clean getaway, they said in a finding that helps explain why flies so easily evade swipes from their human foes.
"These movements are made very rapidly, within about 200 milliseconds, but within that time the animal determines where the threat is coming from and activates an appropriate set of movements to position its legs and wings," Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology said in a statement.
"This illustrates how rapidly the fly's brain can process sensory information into an appropriate motor response," said Dickinson, whose research appears in the journal Current Biology.
Dickinson's team studied this process in fruit flies using high-speed digital imaging equipment and a fancy fly swatter.
In response to a threat from the front, the fly moves its middle legs forward, leans back and raises its back legs for a backward takeoff. If the threat is from the side, the fly leans the other way before takeoff.
The findings offer new insight into the fly nervous system, and lends a few clues on how to outsmart a fly.
"It is best not to swat at the fly's starting position," Dickinson said. Instead, aim for the escape route.
Dickinson, a bioengineer, has devoted his life's work to the study of insect flight. He has built a tiny robotic fly called Robofly and a 3-D visual flight simulator called Fly-O-Vision.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, editing by Will Dunham and Xavier Briand)
Man, I hate those little fuckers so much. So much.
They just will not go away, and seem to have no goal in life other than to annoy.
In this thread, let's talk about nature's own little wiggins.
flies are pretty awesome
i'd rather flies than spiders
my house is infested with spiders
i went around today to count how many are creeping around in here 17
and some of them are small, but some of them are fucking huge, it's gross
that's not even counting the hundreds of them that have taken up residence outside and around the house
we may need to get an exterminator, as i am tired of waking up to spiders on and or around me
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Clint EastwoodMy baby's in there someplaceShe crawled right inRegistered Userregular
edited August 2008
I don't care if flies infest my home, as long as there's no fucking ticks in here
flies are pretty awesome
i'd rather flies than spiders
my house is infested with spiders
i went around today to count how many are creeping around in here 17
and some of them are small, but some of them are fucking huge, it's gross
that's not even counting the hundreds of them that have taken up residence outside and around the house
we may need to get an exterminator, as i am tired of waking up to spiders on and or around me
hard to shower when 8 eyes and venomous pincers are aimed at your junk
there are three in my bathroom
i really just leave them alone, unless they cross my path
if they are close enough to me to be in my way, i will smush them, that is the rule of the house
also when i wake up and it's staring me in the face on my pillow, i smush the shit out of them
no i live in a brand new house built last year
i don't know what happened, we must have built the house on the biggest nest of spiders in the world
later today, i will go take some pictures of them, it's about time for them to come out and annoy me, they sleep during the first half of the day so they can terrorize our household in the late afternoon/evening.
no i live in a brand new house built last year
i don't know what happened, we must have built the house on the biggest nest of spiders in the world
later today, i will go take some pictures of them, it's about time for them to come out and annoy me, they sleep during the first half of the day so they can terrorize our household in the late afternoon/evening.
Not that it will ever come up, but I will never come to your house.
My my old house in Muncie was like Spider Summer Camp.
It didn't help that the landlord was an ass and those of us whom had basement rooms (3 of us) got our rooms flooded every time it rained. He tried to get it fixed once but it kept happening and all we could do is put fans on it to dry it. After the first 3 times our rooms were crawling with spiders and earwigs.
listen, you gotta know this shit for if you ever go to central or south america
they're not as uncommon as people think, and the worst case of a botfly larvae was found inside a person's skull
the guy died, they gave him an autopsy, found one mother of a botfly larvae eating his brain
grossest bug in the world
i am so glad i live in the great cold north.
The first time I heard about botflies, I was studying my parasitic organisms texts for a bioclass, and bam, one page had pictures, hugeass diagrams of the maggot, diagrams of the hooks along its grubby little body, all that. I have the text with me here now.
I've seen a dog riddled with those when my mom worked in a vet in South Africa, 3 hours they spent trying to remove all the larvae. Filled up a jar with them.
I've seen a dog riddled with those when my mom worked in a vet in South Africa, 3 hours they spent trying to remove all the larvae. Filled up a jar with them.
no i live in a brand new house built last year
i don't know what happened, we must have built the house on the biggest nest of spiders in the world
later today, i will go take some pictures of them, it's about time for them to come out and annoy me, they sleep during the first half of the day so they can terrorize our household in the late afternoon/evening.
Relatively new construction attracts bugs like you wouldn't believe, especially ants, but spiders aren't really an exception.
Call pest control, unless it's going to get really cold pretty soon where you live.
I work for a pest control company, but it's sweltering hot- to - warm-ish like 9 months out of the year here so we have no shortage of work.
I've seen a dog riddled with those when my mom worked in a vet in South Africa, 3 hours they spent trying to remove all the larvae. Filled up a jar with them.
my usual method for dealing with spiders is putting a cup over them until I can recruit help or screw up the courage to take it outside (yes I am a huge wimp)
there's one in the corner of my dorm right now but I don't have any cups and my roommate has named it already, so I guess we're keeping him
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i'd rather flies than spiders
my house is infested with spiders
i went around today to count how many are creeping around in here
17
and some of them are small, but some of them are fucking huge, it's gross
that's not even counting the hundreds of them that have taken up residence outside and around the house
we may need to get an exterminator, as i am tired of waking up to spiders on and or around me
ticks are the worst animal
i would freak out if i woke up to that
I got no beef with spiders
I've spent something like a decade with a basement for a bedroom
and spiders have just sort of become my roommates
they leave me alone, and I offer them the same courtesy
hard to shower when 8 eyes and venomous pincers are aimed at your junk
there are three in my bathroom
i really just leave them alone, unless they cross my path
if they are close enough to me to be in my way, i will smush them, that is the rule of the house
also when i wake up and it's staring me in the face on my pillow, i smush the shit out of them
talk about bad omens for the rest of the day
i don't know what happened, we must have built the house on the biggest nest of spiders in the world
later today, i will go take some pictures of them, it's about time for them to come out and annoy me, they sleep during the first half of the day so they can terrorize our household in the late afternoon/evening.
Yesterday it was still there, same spot same tarantula.
We need to name him.
Not that it will ever come up, but I will never come to your house.
Just sayin.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
would you like a spider in your whiskey, sir?
It didn't help that the landlord was an ass and those of us whom had basement rooms (3 of us) got our rooms flooded every time it rained. He tried to get it fixed once but it kept happening and all we could do is put fans on it to dry it. After the first 3 times our rooms were crawling with spiders and earwigs.
botflies:
(warning this is extremely gross)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23eimVLAQ2c
i cite honey i shrunk the kids
they're not as uncommon as people think, and the worst case of a botfly larvae was found inside a person's skull
the guy died, they gave him an autopsy, found one mother of a botfly larvae eating his brain
grossest bug in the world
i am so glad i live in the great cold north.
So much fun watching her jump after the bastards
Take that, evolutionary biology.
An easy way to get rid of this problem is to pour a cup of bleach down the drain every night for about a week.
A ton of people have this problem, and don't know what to do.
Call pest control, unless it's going to get really cold pretty soon where you live.
I work for a pest control company, but it's sweltering hot- to - warm-ish like 9 months out of the year here so we have no shortage of work.
Oh God, ew. :?
Good lord.
Edit: Nope. Apparently they're the same thing. Huh. I learned something today.
there's one in the corner of my dorm right now but I don't have any cups and my roommate has named it already, so I guess we're keeping him