Why Is It So Hard To Swat A House Fly?

The frigid winter is over and here come the house flies! They are a real nuisance and worse, they can easily get away when you try to swat them. What makes them so nimble?

House flies are near the bottom of the insect food chain, so their bodies are built for quick escape. They have complex eyes containing thousands of fuzzy lenses. The lenses can detect even the slightest movement from nearly any direction, but the lenses are not sharp enough to pay attention to details.

On top of that, their tiny brains determine the direction of the impending threat in as little as 100 milliseconds. That’s three to four times faster than a human eye blinks! In coordination with their powerful wings, which can flap over 300 times per second, and strong supporting muscles, they are able to easily evade most attacks.