Does something like a fly ever die from natural causes?

Question

Can they just die of old age? Or will they always die a "violent" death, e.g. being swatted, stuck on fly paper or eaten by a bird?

Answer 1

That is a curious question. How about an experiment. Get an aquarium with a screen top. Put something that attracts flies, a food source and a water dish with a sponge. Catch some flies, and see how long they last. Keep good records to find out the natural longivity of a fly.

You can start with the larvae. You know forensic scientists have all of this mapped out somewhere for every species of fly, in case they need to determine for example a time of death of a human.

The life cycles of many flies are within weeks and days. They count the number of generations of flies some way at a crime scene.

Maybe you are a budding forensic scientist.

Answer 2

Life as a pest is tough, if they avoid being eaten or splatted on a car then they die of old age after a few weeks to months. The biologists favorite fly is the fruit fly, at a wild guess 50% of all animal testing is done on these.
Google for fruit fly age and you will find plenty to read.

Different insects have wildly different life expectancy, generally the bigger it is the longer it will live.

Answer 3

Once the adult house fly hatches from the pupal stage, it has an approximate life span of 15 to 30 days. Females are able to start producing eggs after two days of life and will continue to lay eggs for about a month. Female house flys are usually larger than the males. So for those lucky enough to not be swatted have about 2-4 weeks of a full life.

Answer 4

They can die of natural causes. I observed this one time when we moved in to a house temporarily. It had been closed up, and flies had hatched. Some of these did get swatted, etc., but the largest percentage died. We'd find their whole corpses on the floor. It was a weird time in a lot of ways.

Answer 5

You'd imagine that they would eventually die of old age if left to their own devices- I mean, the alternative is that they are immortal as long as they aren't actively killed- that would be crazy.

I often find little bodies of flies on widow sills when I'm at home, and I assume that those are the flies that died of old age- either that, or starvation, but I can't imagine that happening- I mean, the kitchen's not that far away, it could easily get a meal ;)

Answer 6

If a fly isn't swatted then it dies of a natural death. A fly's average life span is about 48 hrs.

Answer 7

I'm pretty sure most flies and springtime insects die with the cold that comes with winter, which could be said to be a "natural cause"....

Bees can also die from old age... their lifespan is a month or so.

Answer 8

Think of it this way: not all flies or insects live indoors so there's a whole world of them living free outside away from the dangers of flyswatters and rolled up newspapers. These ones would definitely live out their lives and die of old age... even if their lifespan is extremely short.

Answer 9

There's a type of fly that hatches around freshwater lakes, mates and then dies. Its lifespan is something rediculous like an hour. I think its only purpose on the earth is to provide food for other creatures.

Answer 10

or die trying to fly through a window?..I'm pretty sure they do have natural deaths....to be morbid, have you ever seem a cat or dog die in front of you?..chances are not..because they know when their time is up and they go somewhere "Secluded" to pass on so that they will not affect the rest of the group/clan/members/loved ones....this must be evidence of a soul or consciousness????