The beholder's eye

By uniqueandlovely

Biting house fly - having a stretch!

Over the last few days our house has been plagued by quite a few house flies. Now this isn't especially uncommon this time of year, especially if it is humid, but what is odd is the fact that these house flies bite!!!
The bites are painful enough not to go unnoticed, and a pricking sensation (usually on the foot) is the first indication you have that one of these little beauties has landed on you!!!
Mr U&L and I were getting a bit fed up with this by yesterday evening, so we tracked down and killed all but one of the flies.......and the one left I released as she allowed me a photo shoot!
These biting houseflies Stomoxys calcitrans are also called stable flies, barn flies, dog flies and unlike most other members of the family Muscidae it and other members of it's genus have mouth parts adapted to suck blood from mammals.
The stable fly resembles a small (6-8mm) common housefly Musca domestica, with a spotted abdomen. As the name suggests it is abundant in and around the areas where cattle are kept. Both males and females feed on the blood of mammals. It is thought they might be a vector in the spread of a list of nasty diseases.
In the picture, the biting mouth parts can be easily seen, and in view of this, and the ability to spread nasty things I am glad we got rid of them from our house!!
On a more humorous note, it was very funny watching Pee Wee the Staffi X jumping up in the air tryiing to catch them, she obviously got bitten too!!

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