What does fly eat?

In general, flies are attracted to feed and deposit their eggs on wet, decaying organic materials around your property, such as garbage and animal carcasses or excrement. Yet, different types of flies will eat different things depending on the species.

The most common flies in Indonesia among the others that make many home and business owners feel disgusted and frustrated to deal with, including housefly, fruit flies and blue bottle flies.

Understanding the fly feeding habits will help you to to prevent flies from entering your house and business premises in the future. In this sense, you will be able to determine what food that attracts flies, and how to limit them to finding food sources at your property.

Contact Rentokil online today to keep flies away.

What does housefly eat?

The housefly (Musca Domestica) is the type of flies commonly found in home and business. The housefly is considered as general feeders, which means they are attracted to a wide variety of food from excrement to human and/or animal foods.

Since the housefly’s mouthparts are of sponging-type (known as proboscis), it requires them to only feed on all kinds of foods in the liquid and semi-liquid form.

Some of the things housefly eat, including:

• Decaying organic matter such as human food waste or animal faeces
• Overripe fruit or discarded vegetable
• Sugary foods, including nectar and honeydew

What does fruit fly eat?

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is commonly found swarming in the home kitchen as well as commercial property such as restaurants and supermarkets. More than their fondness to overripe fruits, the fruit fly species are also known to deposit up to 500 eggs on the surface of fruits they fly to.

Although they are tiny in size, they have a keen sense of smell that enables them to detect food odours from kilometres away with a pair of pill-shaped antennae sticking on their head.

Some of the favourite food of fruit flies, including:

• Products of yeast fermentation such as beer or wine
• Overripe fruits such as banana, pineapples or grapes
• Liquid substance like vinegar or cider

What does bluebottle fly eat?

Bluebottle fly (Calliphora vomitoria) or also known as “blowfly” are often seen hovering around where the decomposed food waste can be found, such as garbage cans or landfills.

This tiny filthy insect is also found to lay eggs on decaying matter such as on the carcasses of dead animals - where their larvae can directly feed on the decaying tissues.

Some of the things bluebottle fly eat, including:

• Dead and decaying material, such as animal carcasses
• Decaying flesh

How can Rentokil help to prevent flies from home or business?

At Rentokil, we will do everything we can to make sure that fly infestations are removed from your homes or business. We will also help you to prevent them from returning.

Contact the fly control experts at Rentokil through the online form to schedule a free survey today.