How are flies beneficial to humans?

Question

Besides giving us exercise in wildly waving our hands to swat them away from our face and food plus serving as food for flies, how else are flies beneficial?

Answer 1

Someone already asked that.

On the other hand, second only to the bees and wasps, flies serve the useful function of pollination of flowers with nectar. [15] Though the thought may be infrequent, some flies are useful: (1) tachinid flies parasitize (prey on) the harmful gypsy moth, and (2) the fruit fly (Drosophilia melanogaster) is widely used in experiments concerning the functioning of genes and chromosomes. [16] Professor Thomas H. Morgan of Columbia University pioneered the subject of heredity in the field of genetics using the tiny fruit fly (Drosophilia). Ease of handling, low expense, as well as, requiring only ten days to complete a generation, made the fruit fly especially suitable for scientists to observe several lifetimes of heredity. [17]

Answer 2

Some flies are beneficial to humans. However, the common housefly is not, nor are biting flies like horse flies. Flies feed by secreting liquid that organic materials can dissolve in and this is sucked back up and the process repeated. Unfortunately this liquid is full of bacteria and this can be harmful.

Answer 3

If this question even needs an answer, as there are about 15-20 people above me, it's pretty simple. You make the mistake of seeing evolution as gradually mutating to a creature that seems amazing to you, but would not be important to us. In order to fly, you would not only need wings (with a gigantic wingspan, as we are about 8-12 times the size of your average bird) but a very low weight. This would mean having to compromise muscle mass and bone structure, which would DECREASE the survivability of the creature on the whole. Instead, as humans, we were given a stronger body and skeleton, among other things. Also, since humans evolved from apes instead of birds, we would not only have to have a mutation for functional wings, but for all kinds of weight-decreasing adjustments. The chance of having all those mutations happening at once is so low it is not even considerable. Does your mom give birth to birds? No, that is inane. Hope I helped, instead of just flaming you for a curious, legitimate question like SOME people. EDIT: Just an afterthought, we have become the dominate species of the Earth BECAUSE we can retain the characteristics I mentioned, but still can fly, as you said. Our intelligence allows us to create ourselves!

Answer 4

Flies eat discards, garbage, and decaying meat and plants. They are one of many janitors of society. Their dead bodies also provide nutrients for plants.

If flies clean a dead animal down to the bones, then the skeleton is less likely to pass along disease later.

Answer 5

Well they are initially maggots and maggots have many benefits such as eating dead flesh but not live flesh. You can put one on a stump of a leg and it will eat all the dead material but stop at the live...preventing gangrene from setting in and allowing for a more expeditious healing. Gross...but true.

Answer 6

Flies are a vital ingredient in the breakdown of dead tissue. They speed decomposition. Without them, this would be a very smelly world.

Answer 7

They have no recognized value other than feeding others in the food chain. They spread diseases which tend to keep people from overpopulation by killing off the young and feeble.

Answer 8

Everyone is familiar with house flies. Common household pests, they visit dumps, sewers and garbage heaps, feeding on fecal matter, discharges from wounds and sores, sputum, and all sorts of moist, decaying matter such as spoiled fish, eggs and meat. Flies regurgitate and excrete wherever they come to rest and thereby are ideally suited to mechanically transmit disease organisms. House flies are suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans.

Description:

House flies are gray, approximately 6 mm (1/4 inch) long, with four dark longitudinal stripes on top of the thorax, or middle body region. The mouth parts of the house fly are adapted for sponging up liquids. They cannot bite. Flies ingest only liquid food; they feed on solid food by regurgitating saliva onto it. The saliva liquefies the solid material, which is then sponged up with the proboscis. They require water since they continually salivate. Fly specks seen on surfaces visited by house flies are the excreted wastes.



Stages in the life cycle of the house fly (Clemson University Extension)




Life Cycle:

Female house flies deposit their eggs in decaying organic matter such as garbage and human and animal excrement. Horse manure is the preferred breeding medium. Each female deposits about 100-150 eggs on appropriate food. Eggs hatch in a day or two into worm-like creatures called maggots. Maggots lack definite heads, eyes, antennae and legs. Their bodies are pointed at the front end and gradually widen at the rear. Fly maggots feed on the material in which they have hatched. Following three larval molts, mature larvae stop feeding and burrow into drier surrounding areas, where they pupate. The pupa is a chestnut-brown, oval object within which the larva changes into an adult house fly. Adults mate within one to two days after emerging from their pupal cases. The life cycle from egg to adult can be completed in as little as one week, but typically takes three weeks. House fly adults normally live about two and a half weeks during the summer, but they can survive up to three months at lower temperatures. Some overwinter outdoors in protected locations, or in crevices in buildings. Flies normally stay within one or two miles of their point of origin, but some have been known to travel as far as twenty miles.

Control:

The three basic principles of house fly control are sanitation, exclusion and non-chemical measures. Sanitation will provide the best long-term control, followed by exclusion and non-chemical measures, which provide shorter-term management.

Sanitation: Flies can't breed in large numbers if food sources are limited. Don't allow materials such as manure, garbage or other decaying organic matter to accumulate. Keep trash cans clean and tightly covered. If garbage becomes infested with maggots, dispose of it immediately.

Exclusion: Flies can be kept outside of homes by the use of window and door screens. Make sure screens are tight fitting and without holes. Keep doors closed, making sure there are no openings at the top or bottom. Check for openings around water or gas pipes or electrical conduits that feed into the building. Caulk or plug any openings. Ventilation holes should be screened, as they can serve as entryways for flies as well.

Non-chemical Measures: The use of devices such as ultraviolet-light traps, sticky fly traps, fly swatters, and baited fly traps can eliminate many flies inside a home, but the fly swatter is the most economical control method for the occasional fly.



Adapted from Dewey M. Caron, University of Delaware, 1999

Answer 9

Maggots have been proven useful in preventing infection from gangrene.

Answer 10

Arent they like helpfulling in cleaning up wastes, if you know what I mean. If you dont, wastes meaning poop.