The Life of a Blue House Fly

The blue house fly also is called the blow fly.

The blue house fly seems like a normal house fly (Musca domestica), but these flies actually belong to a separate classification known as blow flies or bottle flies (Calliphoridae), noted for their shiny blue/green appearance.

Physical Characteristics

Blue house flies have two wings and a metallic blue color on the thorax and abdomen. These flies also have a size similar to or slightly larger than the standard house fly. Small hairs covering the body serve as taste organs, and thousands of compound eyes allow them to see in a full circle all at once.

Habits

Blue blow flies feed off of rotting carcasses and wounded animals, as well as garbage and feces. The flies gather mostly in barnyards, restaurant dumpsters and garbage dumps, but they also gather in homes for overwintering or when small animals get caught inside the walls or other spaces and die.

Life Span

Larvae develop to full size after two or three days, and the flies live between 9 and 25 days. Most take 10 days to pass through the egg, larval and pupal stages. The flies breed rapidly, and a single trash can can produce 30,000 flies in one week.

References

• Rid-Max: Filth-Breeding Flies
• Illinois Department of Public Health: The House Fly and Other Filth Flies
• Cornell University: Integrated Pest Management
• University of Minnesota: Summer Filth Flies
• Orkin: Blue House Fly