Karratha Flies

Ch7 reporter this morning being interviewed 'after' the tropical cyclone at cat3 had cleared Karratha , observed swatting at flies, and doing the good ol Aussie salute
So the flies on the West Coast must be some tough buggers to be still hammering away after wind gust of over 200 kph went right through that area in Karratha,

so my thoughts are where do they hide?
how do they survive winds like that?
what distance can a fly travel in a day?
whats top speed for a fly? dang sight faster when being chased, I know that

Most llies cannot fly faster than 9kph so when the wind is consistently stronger than this they land on the nearest surface and walk about.
Above about 50 kph they have to seek cover and the do indeed hide under all sorts of things, bark, leaves, rocks, logs etc

Some other fun facts I learned about flies from my vet BIL:
They live for only about 28 days
They mostly die while resting vertically or upside down, and that’s why there are so many dead flies on window sills.

February in Karratha is the worst time of the year for flies, As soon as daylight starts to appear they are in your eyes, mouth and nostrils in their thousands, you breathe them in, they're all over your lunch before you can eat it, and when you do you usually ingest a few.
Man I miss my old home town.
Cheers,
Geoff.

I was told that in the winter, flies go to the same place as surveyors go when it rains. No one knows where this is.

As a cyclist, I was always aware that there is an FEV - Fly Escape Velocity. I suspect that it's a bit above the 9kph quoted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlexS

I was told that in the winter, flies go to the same place as surveyors go when it rains. No one knows where this is.

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One theory was they crawl up old timers noses and nose hairs are really flies legs dangling down.

as for flies on cyclists. Cyclists “drag” a layer of air with them as the ride along and flies are expert at riding along in that layer so it takes a cycling speed much higher than 9kph to shed the buggers. Also the 9kph is an average some can fly much faster.

[QUOTE=BobL;2173474]One theory was they crawl up old timers noses and nose hairs are really flies legs dangling down.

And I thought the buzzing noise when I'm trimming my nose hairs was the sound of the trimmer.....in reality it's the agonised screams of the flies getting their legs amputated. Thanks for that Bob that'll stay with me for the rest of my days.
Cheers,
Geoff.