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"Drunk" flies?

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248RPA
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27 Jun 2017, 8:44 pm

For the past few years around springtime, I've been noticing that some flies act differently, almost like the insect version of being drunk. They fly rather slowly and not as high. I can easily step on them if I want to. Usually, it's very tricky to get them. If I swat at them, they seem to get uncoordinated and often lose altitude.

What could cause this?

I'm thinking that it could be some part of their life cycle, a kind of virus, or some kind of chemicals. It seems to affect only flies at certain locations, so I think it might more likely be chemicals.


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naturalplastic
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30 Jun 2017, 12:52 am

Dunno.

Maybe you walked into a yard that was just sprayed with incesticide.

Or maybe they had parasites.

Or maybe flies just come to the end of their lifecycle at certain seasons.



248RPA
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05 Jul 2017, 2:05 pm

It was probably insecticides. I heard talk at one of the places about changing which insecticides to use.


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eric76
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06 Jul 2017, 4:55 pm

248RPA wrote:
For the past few years around springtime, I've been noticing that some flies act differently, almost like the insect version of being drunk. They fly rather slowly and not as high. I can easily step on them if I want to. Usually, it's very tricky to get them. If I swat at them, they seem to get uncoordinated and often lose altitude.

What could cause this?

I'm thinking that it could be some part of their life cycle, a kind of virus, or some kind of chemicals. It seems to affect only flies at certain locations, so I think it might more likely be chemicals.


I've seen something like this at a grain storage facilities. I think they must have been feeding on corn that had fermented to some degree because the flies could barely fly and were hardly able to notice it when you reached over and squashed them.



DeepHour
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06 Jul 2017, 7:43 pm

I love these stories about animals getting drunk.... :lol:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/ ... ainsection



CharityGoodyGrace
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16 Jul 2017, 3:04 am

Maybe they got into someone's beer at a barbecue/yard party.