Whats New !
FlyPower Today
Historical FlyPower
Fly Facts !
Products
Decals
How to Catch Flies
Become a Member
Member
Services
Order Form
Guestbook
Hate Mail
FlyPower
Links
Contact Us
Reseller Program
Frames
Version
......Coming Soon......
FlyPower Contests
World Records
Other Anteater Sites
The Official Yogi Berra Web
Site
coming in June
CoinLink
Center
for Computer Diseases (humor)
Coming
in August
InsureLink
Copyright ©
1990
Thomas Fetterman Inc.
FlyPower®
Copyright © 1997
Protected by the
Copyright
Archive
Certificate No: 1193
First Registered: 6/6/1997
AntEater Design Group
Exclusive
Internet Licensee
All Rights Reserved
FlyPower Facts
Flies have been pursuing mankind throughout all of recorded history, and probably from the time man emerged from his caves and began to walk erect.
They are depicted in the oldest writings from the ancient world. Hieroglyphics from Egypt (pictured here) chronicle these tormentors along the nile. Flies are referenced in the Bible as one of the plagues Moses brought down upon the house of Pharaoh. They have even been taken aboard the space shuttle into outer space.
In all there are over 120,000 species of flies ranging in size from 1/20th of an inch to well over three inches. Can you imagine what an engine a three inch fly would make!
One of the things that separate Flies ( Diptera) from other flying insects are their wings. Flies are the only insects that have only two. All other insects have four wings.
The flies reputation for uncleanliness is also well deserved. Many of man's primary diseases are transmitted by flies, including the deadlyYellow Fever. Entomologists Dr. Yao and Dr. Yuan of China studied more than 378,046 common house flies and estimated that each carried no less than 1,941,000 bacteria on their bodies. Indeed Flies are probably responsible for more deaths among humans then any perceived atrocities we may have misguidedly thrust upon them.
Also, flies don't bite or sting. They have neither teeth nor a stinger. Flies thrust a needle like spike into their victims and injects a digestive juice that breaks down the victims cell tissue. They then suck the liquid in to injest it. Very poor manners to say the least.
But don't think that flies are helpless and otherwise benign to their larger neighbors. In 1923, Black flies in swarms were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 sheep, horses and cattle in Rumania and Bulgaria. Of course I would suppose one would expect this sort of behavior from an area of the world that also brought us the Carpathinan warlord, Dracula.
A few more misc. facts to round things out. Did you know.........
- The average house fly lives on average 21 days.
- A flies wings beat 200 times per second.
- Flies don't grow. They are born full size.
- Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
- Flies jump up and backwards when taking off.
- Average speed of a fly in flight is 4.5 m.p.h..
- Flies smell with their antennae
Finally, one last fact. As you will see on the Historical Flypower page, many designs for fly powered aircraft have been presented to the unwary public. Most depict flies being glued to some form of fuselage by their feet. This is a sure way to disaster.
Fact: Flies will only continue to beat their wings so long as their feet are free. As soon as the feet become stationary, the will stop flying. Remember this as the fundamental rule of FlyPower.
If you have any other interesting information you would like to pass along on our hairy little friends, send us an e-mail and we'll include it here.
