Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily Art, This is the
Speaker 1: Daily oas.
Speaker 2: Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to
Speaker 2: the Daily Ours. It's Monday, the twenty seventh of October.
Speaker 2: I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Lucy Tassel.
Speaker 1: If you've noticed an increase in the number of flies
Speaker 1: wherever you are in the country right now, No, it's
Speaker 1: not just you. Summer is always a time of increased
Speaker 1: fly numbers. But is there actually anything out of the
Speaker 1: ordinary going on right now? We've got something a little
Speaker 1: different to kick off your week, but stick with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I want to introduce you to a man named
Speaker 2: doctor Brian Lessard, also known as Briy the Fly Guy,
Speaker 2: and he is on a mission to defend the tarnished
Speaker 2: reputation of the humble fly. And in today's deep Dive,
Speaker 2: he is going to explain why and when fly populations increase.
Speaker 2: But more than that, he has spent his career learning
Speaker 2: why these sometimes annoying critters are actually a lot more
Speaker 2: important and useful than you might think. He is an
Speaker 2: award winning entomologist, science communicator and children's author based in Canberra,
Speaker 2: and he joins me now. Doctor Bryan bry the fly Guy,
Speaker 2: Welcome to the pod.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I'm so keen to chat to you.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of questions for you. We've crowdsourced
Speaker 2: a few of them from the office, but I suppose
Speaker 2: the biggest one to kick things off is all of
Speaker 2: us have noticed more flies around lately the last few days,
Speaker 2: especially not just us here in the Sydney office, but
Speaker 2: we've heard reports from across New South Wales and Victoria.
Speaker 2: Is it just us? Is something going on?
Speaker 3: Nah, there's definitely more flies this time of year than
Speaker 3: a few months ago in winter, so no one's going crazy.
Speaker 3: And it's the perfect storm of hate and rain as well.
Speaker 3: So when it rains, the water seeps into the ground
Speaker 3: and it triggers the flies to hatch out of the
Speaker 3: cocuon like pupil cases, and then they emerge into this
Speaker 3: flurry of adults. And when it's warmer, they get way
Speaker 3: more active too. So that's why it's pretty much school
Speaker 3: is for flies now. The adults have one thing on
Speaker 3: the mine and that's pretty much defined a date. Wow.
Speaker 2: So does that mean if the rain triggers more eggs
Speaker 2: to hatch, that the kind of I don't know if
Speaker 2: this is the right term, but like the gestation period
Speaker 2: for a flies is weather dependent rather than time dependent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely weather dependent. In winter, it gets really cold obviously,
Speaker 3: and our flies can't cope with it. So it's kind
Speaker 3: of sad because most of the adult flies actually die
Speaker 3: off in winter, but they actually go into hibernation the
Speaker 3: eggs and some of the cocoon like pupil cases and
Speaker 3: they wait for it to warm up in springtime and
Speaker 3: that's right now, and then they kind of reliant on
Speaker 3: that rain to kind of soften the soil so they
Speaker 3: can emerge and crawl out and then swarm to their
Speaker 3: nearest flower and have a drinking nectar and yeah, pretty
Speaker 3: much live the best life. Wow.
Speaker 2: I don't think many people realize that they come from
Speaker 2: out of the ground.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So flies generally lay their eggs in the soil,
Speaker 3: particularly blowflies, So everyone knows if they've gone for a
Speaker 3: hike and they've seen a dead kangaroo, that there's a
Speaker 3: lot of larvae or maggots crawling around in there. So
Speaker 3: after they have their little festy feast, they crawl off
Speaker 3: into the soil and pupate, kind of like when a
Speaker 3: caterpillar goes into a cocoon.
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of listens are hearing the words
Speaker 2: blowfly and feeling a little uncomfortable. They don't get the
Speaker 2: best rap. But you have made this your career being
Speaker 2: an expert on all things flies and insects. So can
Speaker 2: you tell us why they are necessary for the ecosystem?
Speaker 2: What's the actual role they play.
Speaker 3: I used to hate flies like everyone until I started
Speaker 3: studying them, and particularly blowfly. So I learned that blowflies
Speaker 3: could help solve crime, and that sparks my interest. And
Speaker 3: that's because yeah, yeah, so if you ever watch bones
Speaker 3: or CSI, you always have that forensic entomologist specialists. So
Speaker 3: if someone dies, the blowflies can lay their eggs on
Speaker 3: that corpse within minutes of that person passing away, so
Speaker 3: you can use the size of the maggot as the
Speaker 3: indication of its age to help identify when that crime occurred.
Speaker 3: And I thought that was pretty amazing. And then I
Speaker 3: started studying flies and thought they were pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is intense. What is the reason that flies
Speaker 2: are attracted to decay in that way?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not all flies that are attracted to smelly,
Speaker 3: gross stuff, mostly the blowflies because they've exploited this grossed
Speaker 3: habitat where no other insects want to live, those rotting corpses,
Speaker 3: and so what the female does is lay her eggs
Speaker 3: in them, and then the larvae eat that rotten meat.
Speaker 3: And what they're actually doing is they're recycling that nutrients
Speaker 3: and turning into compost so other fungi and plants can
Speaker 3: use those nutrients. Otherwise they'd be lost and we'd be
Speaker 3: waist deep in waste without flies. Wow.
Speaker 2: So it sounds a little bit grim at the surface,
Speaker 2: but there's actually a much bigger kind of recycling purpose
Speaker 2: to this.
Speaker 3: Definitely, And if you enjoy chowing down on your smashed
Speaker 3: avo very smoothies and mango for brunch, you definitely want
Speaker 3: to appreciate the blowflies as well. Why because blowflies are
Speaker 3: actually really important pollinators and they have a sweet tooth
Speaker 3: like us, so they drink the sugary nectar from flowers
Speaker 3: and help cross pollinate that. So there's farmers in Australia
Speaker 3: that are actually encouraging the native blowflies into the orchards
Speaker 3: to help pollinate our mangoes, avocados, berries, the hops that
Speaker 3: we used to brew beer with, and also the grapes
Speaker 3: that we use to make wine. And did you know
Speaker 3: without flies, there'd been no chocolate. That's because the most
Speaker 3: important pollinator of the cacao plant that we make chocolate
Speaker 3: from is a teeny tiny fly about the size of
Speaker 3: a pin head, and it's the only fly small enough
Speaker 3: to crawl through its flowers and pollinate it. So if
Speaker 3: we didn't have this fly and flies in general, we'd
Speaker 3: be living in the chocolates, which would be pretty evil.
Speaker 2: Wow, well, we must do everything we can to save
Speaker 2: the flies.
Speaker 3: Hey, I can get behind that.
Speaker 2: Why are flies so much more prevalent in the more
Speaker 2: regional remote parts of the country. You know, you drive
Speaker 2: out of the cities in the summer and it seems
Speaker 2: like they are ten times worse.
Speaker 3: The reason why we might notice more flies when we're
Speaker 3: out in remote Australias because there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: water sources in some areas, so they're actually coming to
Speaker 3: us for a drink, particularly the pesky bushfly. If you've
Speaker 3: ever gone for a hike or walked outside and the
Speaker 3: bushflies are coming at your eyes, ears, and nose, they
Speaker 3: definitely have a reason to do that, and it's because
Speaker 3: you're a walking sports drink.
Speaker 2: Essentially, wow, because I was going to actually ask you,
Speaker 2: and I wonder if this all ties in. Can you
Speaker 2: explain sometimes why it feels like a fly is locked
Speaker 2: in on a particular person and follows them around. You know,
Speaker 2: you just see that sometimes even in the office here,
Speaker 2: it can happen and it's like, oh my god, am
Speaker 2: I stinky?
Speaker 3: You're not stinky? If it is a bushfly, they're quite
Speaker 3: thirsty creatures, so they're actually looking for a drink, so
Speaker 3: that's why they always come and try and drink the
Speaker 3: tears from our eyes, the mucus from our nose, and
Speaker 3: even our saliva because our bodily fluids are actually high
Speaker 3: in protein, electrolytes and moisture too, so we're walking strinks
Speaker 3: to them, so that's why they're annoying us. Mosquitoes, on
Speaker 3: the other hand, and some blood feeding flies like horseflies
Speaker 3: or march flieres, can actually smell us, so they're locked
Speaker 3: into the co two the carbon dioxide that we're breathing out,
Speaker 3: so they can actually pick up that scent and they
Speaker 3: can also see our body temperature to as a target.
Speaker 3: So with horseflies in particular, it's only the females that
Speaker 3: buit it because she needs the protein in our blood
Speaker 3: to ripen our eggs, and without it she couldn't have
Speaker 3: fertile young.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of today's deep dive
Speaker 1: right after this.
Speaker 2: Are the most common flies that we're kind of seeing
Speaker 2: at the moment. Are they horseflies or bushflies or something else?
Speaker 3: Well, that's the thing. Ossies think that there's only two
Speaker 3: or three species of flies in Australia, like the ones
Speaker 3: that pretty much annoy us, like the bushflies and blowflies,
Speaker 3: But there's actually thirty thousand species of flies just living
Speaker 3: in Australia and they do all sorts of things. One
Speaker 3: of my favorite flies is called a beefly, and it
Speaker 3: looks like a bee. That's why it's called a beefly
Speaker 3: because it pollinates flowers. But I think they should be
Speaker 3: called twerking flies because the females will actually land on
Speaker 3: sand and twerk in the ground, and she'll coat her
Speaker 3: eggs in sand, and then she flies around and launches
Speaker 3: them in spider burrows and then those eggs hatch into hungry,
Speaker 3: hungry larvae that eat spiders. So beeflies actually helping to
Speaker 3: keep our spider population down.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, well I'll try to remember that next time
Speaker 2: I think bad thoughts about flies. Why do we think
Speaker 2: that flies are dirty? I guess there's this image that
Speaker 2: we all probably have of, you know, the roadkill with
Speaker 2: the flies around it, or the kind of CSI more
Speaker 2: gory detail. There, Are they dirty? Should we be worried
Speaker 2: if they land on us?
Speaker 3: The majority of flies are not dirty. It's just a
Speaker 3: misconception that keeps perpetuating through pop culture and also my
Speaker 3: arch nemesis louis the fly. Most flies will never come
Speaker 3: anywhere near us. Of course, there are the flies that
Speaker 3: can transmit some diseases, so there is a worry that
Speaker 3: if a blowfly lands on your sausage sandwich, its legs
Speaker 3: might be dirty because it was hanging out at a
Speaker 3: rotting kangaroo, so there could potentially be a transfer of
Speaker 3: those bacteria. So always cover your food. But the majority
Speaker 3: of flies leave us alone, essentially, and particularly maggots. Maggots
Speaker 3: get a really bad reputation, where maggot spit is actually
Speaker 3: cleaner than human spit pretty much. Researchers have found that
Speaker 3: black solder fly larvae you might have seen them churning
Speaker 3: through your compost in the backyard. The spit actually has
Speaker 3: anti microbial properties to reduce the coli in our compost too.
Speaker 3: And then one of my favorite professions is called a
Speaker 3: maggot nurse, And there are nurses at Westmead Hospital that
Speaker 3: actually use sterile blowfly larvae to treat diabetic ulcers and
Speaker 3: necrotic tissue because those larvae are clean and the spit
Speaker 3: helps ward off secondary infections. And this might sound nasty,
Speaker 3: but it's actually quite useful. The wriggling around of the
Speaker 3: larvae in the flesh actually helps stimulate circulation and promote
Speaker 3: wound healing, which is pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm learning so much from you. This is fascinating stuff.
Speaker 2: I guess with this bad pr that we've seen over
Speaker 2: generations against flies and knowing all these incredible things that
Speaker 2: they can do. When people see a fly infestation or
Speaker 2: you know, maybe there's a bunch of buzzing around the house,
Speaker 2: they immediately grab the spray. Can what are we getting wrong?
Speaker 2: And when should we actually be concerned about the number
Speaker 2: of flies?
Speaker 3: So spraying flies with chemicals is such a bad idea,
Speaker 3: not only just to the fly but also human health.
Speaker 3: We don't want these chemicals in our house. The problem
Speaker 3: with these chemicals. They're so high in pesticides that when
Speaker 3: it rains, they actually flush down our gutters and end
Speaker 3: up in our waterways and has a knock on effect
Speaker 3: to other insects and fish as well. So preferably put
Speaker 3: down the spray. Some tips that I would recommend to
Speaker 3: get rid of flies is obviously have fly screens in
Speaker 3: your house, remove your bins, your kitchen waist bin quite regularly,
Speaker 3: because as soon as that becomes smelly, blowflies want to
Speaker 3: get in. And just shoe flies away and let them
Speaker 3: pollinate another day. Such good advice.
Speaker 2: Right when we're looking forward to the summer ahead, are
Speaker 2: we anticipating that it's going to be a particularly popular
Speaker 2: summer for flies. After a rainy period across parts of the.
Speaker 3: It's probably going to be a bumper season for flies
Speaker 3: because when the temperatures get warmer, which is predicted for
Speaker 3: this summer, we'll probably see a lot more insect activity,
Speaker 3: particularly flies. If you're less inclined to my fly friends
Speaker 3: this summer, you can definitely do a few things to
Speaker 3: let them be less annoying. So you can wear long
Speaker 3: sleeve and long pants that'll keep biting flies like horseflies
Speaker 3: and mosquitoes off of your body so they can't actually
Speaker 3: bite you. You can wear topical insect repellents to get
Speaker 3: rid of them, and also just avoid dusk and dawn
Speaker 3: too if you don't want to be bit my mosquitoes.
Speaker 3: A lot of people don't realize that mosquitoes are actually flies.
Speaker 3: So mosquitoes have two wings. Yeah, yeah, So mosquitoes have
Speaker 3: two wings, and that's what defines a fly. And the
Speaker 3: word mosquito is actually Spanish for little fly, which is
Speaker 3: kind of cute.
Speaker 2: That is kind of cute. You're doing very very good
Speaker 2: reputation rehab for the higher fly slash mosquito world. Here,
Speaker 2: I just have one last question for you, and that's
Speaker 2: what is the one thing you wish people knew about
Speaker 2: flies or that you want them to take away from
Speaker 2: this conversation, you know, the next time they swat one away.
Speaker 3: Oh, flies are the ultimate underdogs and they're actually trying
Speaker 3: to help us have a better life, and we just
Speaker 3: take them for granted. So the essential workers of our ecosystem,
Speaker 3: pollinating our native flowers, help churning through our composts to
Speaker 3: make it better. And they're actually really beautiful. When you
Speaker 3: put them under the microscope, you can appreciate the hidden beauty.
Speaker 3: Some of them look like little opals. Some of them
Speaker 3: are so pretty that I named them after Beyonce and
Speaker 3: new species after RuPaul as well, because they're quite fierce
Speaker 3: and stunning creatures. So I just encourage everyone to challenge
Speaker 3: your expectations with flies.
Speaker 2: Doctor Brian bry the Fly Guy, It's been absolutely fascinating
Speaker 2: to learn so much from you. Thank you for joining
Speaker 2: us on the Daily Oas.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me time definitely flies, Thank.
Speaker 1: You so much for listening to today's episode, and a
Speaker 1: huge thanks to doctor Brian Lessard for speaking with us.
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about flies and everything
Speaker 1: he's doing, you can look him up on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Bria the Fly Guy, and we will pop that handle
Speaker 1: in the show notes. We'll be back with the headlines
Speaker 1: later on this afternoon. Until then, have a great start
Speaker 1: to your week. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm
Speaker 1: a proud Adunda Bungelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigol Country. The
Speaker 1: Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the
Speaker 1: lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all
Speaker 1: Aboriginal and Torres Strait island and nations. We pay our
Speaker 1: respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past
Speaker 1: and present.