If you’ve ever had a fly buzzing around your home — and who hasn’t? — you know how frustrating this can feel. Fly swatter in hand, you rip your house apart attempting to get at the annoying insect who manages to stay just out of reach. At least you can rest secure in the knowledge that it’ll be dead within 24 hours. Right?
Rumor has it that houseflies (Musca domestica) are a very short-lived pest in the common household, but it turns out these little insects have more than a mere 24 hours to eke out their lives, steal a little food, and pass on their genes to the next generation of maggots. According to entomologists, houseflies live for upwards of 20 to 25 days. What’s more, in some instances, they’ve been documented to live for up to 30 to 60 days!