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Interesting facts about Flies
In all there are over 120,000
species of flies ranging in size from 1/20th of an inch to well
over three
inches.
Flies are the only insects that have only two. All other insects
have four wings.
The flies' reputation for uncleanliness is well deserved. Many
of man's primary diseases are transmitted
by flies. A study of more than 378,046 common house flies
revealed that each carried an estimated
1,941,000 bacteria on their bodies.
Flies don't bite or sting. They have neither teeth nor a
stinger. Flies thrust a needle like spike into their
victims and inject a digestive juice that breaks down the
victim's cell tissue. They then suck the liquid
in to ingest it.
The adult fly transmits disease by contaminating food with
disease organisms it has picked up on its
hairy legs or has ingested and then regurgitated.
The house fly "hums" in the key of F and beats its wings over
20,000 times a minute
The average house fly lives on average 21 days.
Flies don't grow. They are born full size.
Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
Flies jump up and backwards when taking off.
Average speed of a fly in flight is 4.5 m.p.h
Flies smell with their antennae
Beginning with one pair of house flies in April, there would be
a total of 191,000,000,000,000,000,000
flies by August if all the descendants of this pair lived and
reproduced normally.
Interesting facts about Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes have been around for over 30 million years.
There are over three thousand different kinds of mosquitoes in
the world.
A mosquito wing beats from 300-600 times per second.
A male mosquito can find females by listening to the sound of
their wings beating.
They identify the correct species by the pitch of the female's
wings.
Male mosquitoes do not bite.
Only female mosquitoes bite.
They need the protein that animal and human blood provides to
produce their eggs. A female mosquito will often consume more
than her own weight in blood.
Male mosquitoes feed only on nectar from plants.
Mosquitoes do not transmit HIV/Aids.
Mosquitoes are arthropods, so are lobsters, spiders, bees,
fleas, and barnacles.
Mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals in the world.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are 300 to 500
million clinical cases of malaria each year, resulting in 1.5 to
2.7 million deaths.
Female mosquitoes are capable of biting more than once.
After she takes a blood meal she completes the development of
her eggs and may deposit up to 250 eggs at once in water. She is
then able to seek another blood meal.
One female mosquito may average 1,000 to 3,000 offspring's
during her life span.
Mosquitoes, like all insects, are cold-blooded creatures.
As a result their body temperatures are the same as their
surroundings. In temperate climates, adult mosquitoes become
inactive with the onset of cool weather and enter hibernation to
live through the winter.
In spring, the females emerge from hibernation, find a blood
meal and lay their eggs.
The average life span of the female mosquito is three to 100
days; the male mosquito will survive 10 to 20 days.
Interesting facts about Wasps
There are over 15,000 species of wasps worldwide.
The female yellow jacket wasp lays both fertilized and
unfertilized eggs.
Female workers develop from the fertilized egg and male drones
develop from the unfertilized egg.
Wasps feed on sweet liquids, and some that have been feeding on
fermenting juice have been observed, eventually, to get drunk
and pass out.
Only female wasps can sting.
Tarantual wasps paralyze tarantulas and lay a single egg on the
still living spider; when the egg hatches, the wasp larva has
fresh food. In social wasps, workers have an average lifespan of
12-22 days, drones have a slightly longer lifespan than workers,
and queens have an average lifespan of 12 months. Wasps beat
their wings between 117 and 247 beats per second.
The venom sac at the end of a wasp sting keeps pulsing for a
short period after a wasp dies, so if you come in contact with
the sting you may still be injected with venom.
The Tarantula Hawk wasp is the largest wasp in the world and has
been adopted as the official insect of New Mexico.
It has a wingspan of roughly 12cm (5in) The smallest wasp is the
Dicopomorpha Echmepterygis, a parasitic wasp which is only a
tenth of a millimeter in size. Interestingly the male
Dicopomorpha echmepterygis are blind and wingless, which
probably explains why nobody has adopted it as their official
insect.
Interesting facts about Creepy Crawlies!
Cockroaches
The world's largest cockroach is 6 inches long with a 12 inch
wing span.
Don't worry, it lives in South America! There are about 5,000
species of cockroach.
Cockroaches can go without food for a month but can only live
for a week without water.
Cockroaches can swim and hold their breath for 40 minutes.
Spiders
Little Miss Muffet of the nursery rhyme really existed.
She was the daughter of Dr Mouffet who believed spiders had
healing powers when eaten.
Spiders have 48 knees.
There are more than 30,000 species of spiders.
Webs get dirty and torn, so lots of spiders make a new one every
day.
They don't waste the old one, though--they roll it up into a
ball and eat it! All spiders spin silk, but not all make webs.
Spider silk is one of the strongest natural fibres in the world.
Ants
Ants have been living on the Earth for more than 100
million years.
There are an estimated 20,000 species of ants. Ants can lift 20
times their own body weight.
The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs.
One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for
food to be shared with other ants.
Ants do not have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all
over the body and Carbon Dioxide leaves through the same holes.
Caterpillars
(Processional Pine Caterpillars) Pine Caterpillars (Latin name
thaumetopoea pityocampa) are probably one of the most unpleasant
creatures you will find in Spain, certainly in areas where pine
trees grow in abundance.
They are found throughout the warmer regions of Southern Europe,
the Near East and North Africa.
As well as causing much damage to pine forests, they are a major
danger to animals and, to a lesser degree, human beings.
Do not touch them. Warn your children that they are not like the
friendly English caterpillars.
The very fine hairs on these creatures are poisonous and most
dangerous.
They can be seen living in silk cocoon style nests hanging in
the pine trees to which they are most harmful, stripping them of
their pine needles.
When hungry, they leave their cocoon to seek another uninfested
tree on which to feed.
They travel nose to tail in a line, hence the name Processional.
They are most noticeable from January to mid April and are at
their most dangerous in mid/late February.
The caterpillars are often seen in the evenings, walking in
procession from tree to tree.
If they drop onto you or your pet, don't brush them off with
your hands because the effect is most unpleasant, causing great
irritation, rash and pain.
Dogs, cats and people can suffer from shock.
The hairs of the caterpillars are still virulent even when the
creatures are dead.
Do not hit them with sticks because hairs flying in the air are
just as dangerous.
Burn them, but be careful of floating hairs.
If the caterpillars are in the tree cocoon state, first spray
the nest with hair spray (to seal down the hairs), cover the
cocoon and the affected part of the branch with a plastic bag,
cut down the branch, place it on clear ground and burn it.
If the caterpillars are on the ground marching, it is better
first to spray them with lighter fuel and then set them alight.
This reduces the risk of flying hairs.
Take care to only do this where you cannot inadvertently start a
forest fire because during the summer months the undergrowth and
trees are very dry.
If you live near pine trees, it is recommended that you keep
Anti Histamine tablets handy as an early treatment.
In particular, avoid ingesting the hairs.
Dogs are most at risk by sniffing the ground where the
caterpillars have marched. Take particular care with your eyes.
If affected the result is serious, causing pain and swelling
similar to a bad case of conjunctivitis. Treatment: If a person
or animal shows signs of shock, get them to a doctor, hospital
or vet immediately.
If you have children and are considering buying property, take
the above details into consideration. Golfing.
When these caterpillars march across golf courses, play ceases
immediately because it is too hazardous to try to clear them
away.
Sand Flies
(Leishmaniasis)
Your Pet Dog needs protection, otherwise it can
be in serious danger
Dogs that regularly travel abroad may be exposed to
Leishmaniasis (also known as Kala-Azar) which is carried from
dog-to-dog by a bite from a Sand Fly.
The name 'Sand Fly' is misleading as the Sand Fly's natural
habitat is in wooded and garden areas.
Dogs can be bitten up to 100 times an hour during the sand fly
season which begins in May and ends in October. August is the
worst month.
The flies are mainly active between dusk and dawn.
Early morning, 2 to 4am, is the worst period. They are not high
flyers so your dog is better off in an upper room or flat at
night.
Fitting a preventative collar will protect your pet from
approximately 95% of sand flies bites for the whole season. Dogs
left out in the garden as security guards are particularly at
risk.
It is thought that there may be very rare suspected cases of the
disease being passed to humans; this is currently being research
by the World Health Authority. Prevention:
The best preventative treatment up to now is , "INTERVET"
invented a year ago and based on mosquito repellents It is
impregnated into a very effective collar called "SCALIBOR"
Please note, this collar lasts for one season only and needs
replacing each May.
Do not let children play with the collar, we have also found the
smell somewhat unpleasant.
See your Vet about a collar before you travel to Spain. Mosquito
repellents, sprays and some mosquito nets etc help to keep them
out of the house.
These flies are very tiny. Things that the owner can do to
prevent are: Keep the dog inside the house when the sun starts
to set, and keep toilet breaks short before bedtime.
Don't give night walks where water runs
Use of mosquito nets to keep flies out of the house.
There have been very few cases of Leishmaniasis "Kala-Azar" in
Spain. When they occur they can be fatal if not treated.
Scorpions
Scorpions are found mainly in the dry country areas and on open
foreshores.
I would suggest that when camping in these areas, you check your
footwear each morning before inserting your foot. I found it
paid off many years ago when I was stationed in Africa.
The Mediterranean Scorpion (Buthus Occitanus - Escorpión
Amarillo) is not as dangerous as the North African type but the
sting is extremely painful.
As they are quite numerous, wearing boots covering the ankles is
a good idea in dry rocky areas.
The European Black Scorpion is present in the northern regions
of Spain.
This scorpion's sting is unpleasant but soon wears off.
Crickets
Crickets are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can
do; male wings have ridges or "teeth" that act like a "comb and
file" instrument).
The left forewing has a thick rib (a modified vein) which bears
50 to 300 ridges.
The chirp is generated by raising their left forewing to a 45
degree angle and rubbing it against the upper hind edge of the
right forewing, which has a thick scraper (Berenbaum 1995).
This sound producing action is called "stridulation" and the
song is species-specific.
Hence, crickets do not rub their hind legs together as is
commonly believed. There are two types of cricket songs: a
calling song and a courting song.
The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is
fairly loud. The courting song is used when a female cricket is
near, and is a very quiet song.
Crickets chirp at different rates depending on their species and
the temperature of their environment. Most species chirp at
higher rates the higher the temperature is (approx. 60 chirps a
minute at 13°C in one common species; each species has its own
rate).
The relationship between temperature and the rate of chirping is
known as Dolbear's Law.
In fact, according to this law, it is possible to calculate the
temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps
produced in 15 seconds by the snowy tree cricket common in the
United States.[1]
To hear the mating call of other crickets, a cricket has ears
located on its knees, just below the joint of the front legs.
Cicadas
A cicada is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder
Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes
wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined
wings.
There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the globe, and
many remain unclassified. Cicadas live in temperate to tropical
climates where they are among the most widely recognized of all
insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable acoustic
talents.
Cicadas are sometimes colloquially called "locusts",[1] although
they are unrelated to true locusts, which are a kind of
grasshopper.
They are also known as "jar flies". Cicadas are related to
leafhoppers and spittlebugs. In parts of the southern
Appalachian Mountains in the United States they are known as
"dry flies" because of the dry shell they leave behind. Cicadas
do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not
considered a pest.
Many people around the world regularly eat cicadas: the female
is prized as it is meatier.
Cicadas have been (or are still) eaten in Ancient Greece, China,
Malaysia, Burma, Latin America and the Congo. Cicadas are
employed in the traditional medicines of China[citation needed]
The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada. (In
classical Greek it was called a tettix, and in modern Greek
tzitzikas.)
In 2004, "cicada" ranked 6th in Merriam-Webster's Words of the
Year.
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