Already and this is the Daily Art, This is the Daily oas.
Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily Ours. It's Monday, the twenty seventh of October. I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Lucy Tassel.
If you've noticed an increase in the number of flies wherever you are in the country right now, No, it's not just you. Summer is always a time of increased fly numbers. But is there actually anything out of the ordinary going on right now? We've got something a little different to kick off your week, but stick with us.
Yeah. I want to introduce you to a man named doctor Brian Lessard, also known as Briy the Fly Guy, and he is on a mission to defend the tarnished reputation of the humble fly. And in today's deep Dive, he is going to explain why and when fly populations increase. But more than that, he has spent his career learning why these sometimes annoying critters are actually a lot more
important and useful than you might think. He is an award winning entomologist, science communicator and children's author based in Canberra, and he joins me now. Doctor Bryan bry the fly Guy, Welcome to the pod.
Thanks for having me. I'm so keen to chat to you.
We have a lot of questions for you. We've crowdsourced a few of them from the office, but I suppose the biggest one to kick things off is all of us have noticed more flies around lately the last few days, especially not just us here in the Sydney office, but we've heard reports from across New South Wales and Victoria. Is it just us? Is something going on?
Nah, there's definitely more flies this time of year than a few months ago in winter, so no one's going crazy. And it's the perfect storm of hate and rain as well. So when it rains, the water seeps into the ground and it triggers the flies to hatch out of the cocuon like pupil cases, and then they emerge into this flurry of adults. And when it's warmer, they get way more active too. So that's why it's pretty much school is for flies now. The adults have one thing on
the mine and that's pretty much defined a date. Wow.
So does that mean if the rain triggers more eggs to hatch, that the kind of I don't know if this is the right term, but like the gestation period for a flies is weather dependent rather than time dependent.
Yeah, definitely weather dependent. In winter, it gets really cold obviously,
and our flies can't cope with it. So it's kind of sad because most of the adult flies actually die off in winter, but they actually go into hibernation the eggs and some of the cocoon like pupil cases and they wait for it to warm up in springtime and that's right now, and then they kind of reliant on that rain to kind of soften the soil so they can emerge and crawl out and then swarm to their nearest flower and have a drinking nectar and yeah, pretty much live the best life. Wow.
I don't think many people realize that they come from out of the ground.
Yeah, So flies generally lay their eggs in the soil, particularly blowflies, So everyone knows if they've gone for a hike and they've seen a dead kangaroo, that there's a lot of larvae or maggots crawling around in there. So after they have their little festy feast, they crawl off into the soil and pupate, kind of like when a caterpillar goes into a cocoon.
I'm sure a lot of listens are hearing the words blowfly and feeling a little uncomfortable. They don't get the best rap. But you have made this your career being an expert on all things flies and insects. So can you tell us why they are necessary for the ecosystem? What's the actual role they play.
I used to hate flies like everyone until I started studying them, and particularly blowfly. So I learned that blowflies could help solve crime, and that sparks my interest. And that's because yeah, yeah, so if you ever watch bones
or CSI, you always have that forensic entomologist specialists. So if someone dies, the blowflies can lay their eggs on that corpse within minutes of that person passing away, so you can use the size of the maggot as the indication of its age to help identify when that crime occurred. And I thought that was pretty amazing. And then I started studying flies and thought they were pretty awesome.
Wow, that is intense. What is the reason that flies are attracted to decay in that way?
Yeah, it's not all flies that are attracted to smelly, gross stuff, mostly the blowflies because they've exploited this grossed habitat where no other insects want to live, those rotting corpses, and so what the female does is lay her eggs in them, and then the larvae eat that rotten meat. And what they're actually doing is they're recycling that nutrients and turning into compost so other fungi and plants can use those nutrients. Otherwise they'd be lost and we'd be
waist deep in waste without flies. Wow.
So it sounds a little bit grim at the surface, but there's actually a much bigger kind of recycling purpose to this.
Definitely, And if you enjoy chowing down on your smashed avo very smoothies and mango for brunch, you definitely want to appreciate the blowflies as well. Why because blowflies are actually really important pollinators and they have a sweet tooth like us, so they drink the sugary nectar from flowers
and help cross pollinate that. So there's farmers in Australia that are actually encouraging the native blowflies into the orchards to help pollinate our mangoes, avocados, berries, the hops that we used to brew beer with, and also the grapes that we use to make wine. And did you know
without flies, there'd been no chocolate. That's because the most important pollinator of the cacao plant that we make chocolate from is a teeny tiny fly about the size of a pin head, and it's the only fly small enough to crawl through its flowers and pollinate it. So if we didn't have this fly and flies in general, we'd be living in the chocolates, which would be pretty evil.
Wow, well, we must do everything we can to save the flies.
Hey, I can get behind that.
Why are flies so much more prevalent in the more regional remote parts of the country. You know, you drive out of the cities in the summer and it seems like they are ten times worse.
The reason why we might notice more flies when we're out in remote Australias because there's not a lot of water sources in some areas, so they're actually coming to us for a drink, particularly the pesky bushfly. If you've ever gone for a hike or walked outside and the bushflies are coming at your eyes, ears, and nose, they definitely have a reason to do that, and it's because you're a walking sports drink.
Essentially, wow, because I was going to actually ask you, and I wonder if this all ties in. Can you explain sometimes why it feels like a fly is locked in on a particular person and follows them around. You know, you just see that sometimes even in the office here, it can happen and it's like, oh my god, am I stinky?
You're not stinky? If it is a bushfly, they're quite thirsty creatures, so they're actually looking for a drink, so that's why they always come and try and drink the tears from our eyes, the mucus from our nose, and even our saliva because our bodily fluids are actually high in protein, electrolytes and moisture too, so we're walking strinks
to them, so that's why they're annoying us. Mosquitoes, on the other hand, and some blood feeding flies like horseflies or march flieres, can actually smell us, so they're locked into the co two the carbon dioxide that we're breathing out, so they can actually pick up that scent and they can also see our body temperature to as a target.
So with horseflies in particular, it's only the females that buit it because she needs the protein in our blood to ripen our eggs, and without it she couldn't have fertile young.
We'll be right back with more of today's deep dive right after this.
Are the most common flies that we're kind of seeing at the moment. Are they horseflies or bushflies or something else?
Well, that's the thing. Ossies think that there's only two or three species of flies in Australia, like the ones that pretty much annoy us, like the bushflies and blowflies, But there's actually thirty thousand species of flies just living in Australia and they do all sorts of things. One of my favorite flies is called a beefly, and it looks like a bee. That's why it's called a beefly
because it pollinates flowers. But I think they should be called twerking flies because the females will actually land on sand and twerk in the ground, and she'll coat her eggs in sand, and then she flies around and launches them in spider burrows and then those eggs hatch into hungry, hungry larvae that eat spiders. So beeflies actually helping to keep our spider population down.
Wow, Okay, well I'll try to remember that next time I think bad thoughts about flies. Why do we think that flies are dirty? I guess there's this image that we all probably have of, you know, the roadkill with the flies around it, or the kind of CSI more gory detail. There, Are they dirty? Should we be worried if they land on us?
The majority of flies are not dirty. It's just a misconception that keeps perpetuating through pop culture and also my arch nemesis louis the fly. Most flies will never come anywhere near us. Of course, there are the flies that can transmit some diseases, so there is a worry that if a blowfly lands on your sausage sandwich, its legs might be dirty because it was hanging out at a rotting kangaroo, so there could potentially be a transfer of
those bacteria. So always cover your food. But the majority of flies leave us alone, essentially, and particularly maggots. Maggots get a really bad reputation, where maggot spit is actually cleaner than human spit pretty much. Researchers have found that black solder fly larvae you might have seen them churning through your compost in the backyard. The spit actually has anti microbial properties to reduce the coli in our compost too.
And then one of my favorite professions is called a maggot nurse, And there are nurses at Westmead Hospital that actually use sterile blowfly larvae to treat diabetic ulcers and necrotic tissue because those larvae are clean and the spit helps ward off secondary infections. And this might sound nasty, but it's actually quite useful. The wriggling around of the larvae in the flesh actually helps stimulate circulation and promote wound healing, which is pretty incredible.
Wow, I'm learning so much from you. This is fascinating stuff. I guess with this bad pr that we've seen over generations against flies and knowing all these incredible things that they can do. When people see a fly infestation or you know, maybe there's a bunch of buzzing around the house, they immediately grab the spray. Can what are we getting wrong? And when should we actually be concerned about the number of flies?
So spraying flies with chemicals is such a bad idea, not only just to the fly but also human health. We don't want these chemicals in our house. The problem with these chemicals. They're so high in pesticides that when it rains, they actually flush down our gutters and end up in our waterways and has a knock on effect to other insects and fish as well. So preferably put
down the spray. Some tips that I would recommend to get rid of flies is obviously have fly screens in your house, remove your bins, your kitchen waist bin quite regularly, because as soon as that becomes smelly, blowflies want to get in. And just shoe flies away and let them pollinate another day. Such good advice.
Right when we're looking forward to the summer ahead, are we anticipating that it's going to be a particularly popular summer for flies. After a rainy period across parts of the.
It's probably going to be a bumper season for flies because when the temperatures get warmer, which is predicted for this summer, we'll probably see a lot more insect activity, particularly flies. If you're less inclined to my fly friends this summer, you can definitely do a few things to let them be less annoying. So you can wear long sleeve and long pants that'll keep biting flies like horseflies and mosquitoes off of your body so they can't actually
bite you. You can wear topical insect repellents to get rid of them, and also just avoid dusk and dawn too if you don't want to be bit my mosquitoes. A lot of people don't realize that mosquitoes are actually flies. So mosquitoes have two wings. Yeah, yeah, So mosquitoes have two wings, and that's what defines a fly. And the word mosquito is actually Spanish for little fly, which is kind of cute.
That is kind of cute. You're doing very very good reputation rehab for the higher fly slash mosquito world. Here, I just have one last question for you, and that's what is the one thing you wish people knew about flies or that you want them to take away from this conversation, you know, the next time they swat one away.
Oh, flies are the ultimate underdogs and they're actually trying to help us have a better life, and we just take them for granted. So the essential workers of our ecosystem, pollinating our native flowers, help churning through our composts to make it better. And they're actually really beautiful. When you put them under the microscope, you can appreciate the hidden beauty.
Some of them look like little opals. Some of them are so pretty that I named them after Beyonce and new species after RuPaul as well, because they're quite fierce and stunning creatures. So I just encourage everyone to challenge your expectations with flies.
Doctor Brian bry the Fly Guy, It's been absolutely fascinating to learn so much from you. Thank you for joining us on the Daily Oas.
Thanks so much for having me time definitely flies, Thank.
You so much for listening to today's episode, and a huge thanks to doctor Brian Lessard for speaking with us. If you want to learn more about flies and everything he's doing, you can look him up on Instagram at Bria the Fly Guy, and we will pop that handle in the show notes. We'll be back with the headlines later on this afternoon. Until then, have a great start to your week. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm
a proud Adunda Bungelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.