Types of Flies in New Jersey

As spring flows into warmer summer weather in the Garden State, you’ll hear a familiar buzzing. It’s fly season, and they are ready to make their annual unwelcome visit to your house. Get a couple of fly swatters and discover more about the types of flies in New Jersey and how to combat them.

Oh, To Be a Fly on the Wall

It’s little wonder that these annoying buzzers have been around for millions of years. An article published by PhysOrg states that the predecessor of the fly family probably evolved around 220 million years ago. This suggests that if humans have walked the earth, flies have been buzzing, biting, and contaminating their food.

Consequently, these nasty insects have been a perennial subject of art, literature, and even music. According to sacred Hebrew texts, flies were one of the legendary plagues visited in Ancient Egypt for divine wrath. Writings from ancient Philistine civilizations identified a dreaded god called Beelzebub, meaning “lord of the flies.”

According to an article published by the Smithsonian, there are approximately 110,000 species of flies in the world. Of these, at least 16,000 species call North America home. Just the thought of so many types of flies in New Jersey might make your skin crawl.

The Buzz in New Jersey

If you live in this area, pesky flies aren’t anything new. Houseflies, blowflies, and fruit flies are the three types of flies in New Jersey that are a nuisance. Learning more about these types of flies could help you keep them under control.

Houseflies

These are the infamous types of flies in New Jersey that invade your home and keep you busy with the fly swat. Despite their name, they feel right at home in barns and any place that’s a potential food source. These nasty insects crave rotting food and animal feces as a nursery for their young.

• Housefly Bodies

This fly, as well as his two disgusting cousins, is an insect with a head, thorax, and abdomen. They have six legs and only one set of veiny, transparent wings. Houseflies are generally about ¼ inch long and have a drab gray color. On close inspection, you’ll notice they are covered with tiny black hairs.

Their prominent eyes are rust-colored, and they are on each side of their head. While some fly species, like the horse fly, can bite, houseflies can’t. They have a straw-like mouth that can only suck up liquified food.

• Housefly Behaviors

These insects are called flies for a good reason. Houseflies are aerodynamic wonders, and they can travel up to five miles in a single flight. They take to the air backward, which makes them a challenge to swat.

When they aren’t buzzing around, this type of fly in New Jersey likes to hang around on ceilings and walls. Their suckered feet allow them to walk up walls and hang upside down with ease. They search for decaying matter and feces for nourishment and look for a mate.

• Housefly Life Cycle

After mating, females lay their eggs in open feces or any putrid organic matter. They usually lay a clutch of 75-150 eggs in this warm, damp environment. In her short lifespan, a female housefly can produce up to 2,000 eggs.

Incubation only lasts 24 hours, and the baby flies hatch as grimy larvae called maggots. They are less than an inch long, about the length of a staple. This grotesque maggot nursery will wiggle and writhe and feast on the filth for up to 14 days.

Now, it’s time for them to crawl to a safe, warm place to morph into their pupae stage. The barrel-shaped pupae are just slightly smaller than the larva, and they have a rusty color. In 3-4 weeks, they will emerge as flying adults and will live for approximately four more weeks.

• Houselfy Health Hazards

Flies bring on health risk to humans due to the places they hatch, live, and eat. Wherever types of flies in New Jersey land, they carry the nasty matter on their feet and bodies. Anything they touch is contaminated, from household surfaces to your food. When they land on your food, they vomit on it and suck in the minute liquified bite.

The many germs houseflies carry around can be deadly. This type of fly in New Jersey enters your home through opened doors and windows, carrying diseases such as typhus, dysentery, and cholera.

• Plan of Action for Housefly Eradication

Before your New Jersey home becomes infested like the legendary Amityville house, stop houseflies at their source. Keep all trash in tightly covered containers and clean up any animal feces. Seal all cracks and screen holes, and avoid keeping unscreened windows and doors open. Keep your food covered, and don’t let it sit out to tempt flies, especially outdoors.

Blow Flies

These morbid types of flies in New Jersey get their common name from their affinity for dead, bloated carcasses. It’s their primary food source and their favorite place for depositing eggs. If you see blowflies swarming about, you can bet something dead is close.

• Blow Fly Bodies

These types of flies in New Jersey are a bit larger than houseflies, and they have the same fly body structure. However, blow flies are ironically beautiful, with their bodies of a blend of metallic blues and greens. They have metallic eyes and a spongy proboscis.

• Blow Fly Behaviors

Blow flies would rather spend their time outdoors buzzing around rotting carcasses; they can also make their way into your home. Even though blowflies don’t infest like roaches do inside homes, they can still cause problems. Trash is a big attraction for them, so making sure it’s sealed up can keep them away from your home.

• Blow Fly Life Cycle

Of the three flies buzzing around the Garden State, blow flies have the most complex life cycle. Females lay their eggs in natural openings and crevices of rotting animal carcasses. The eggs hatch within 24 hours as maggots. Within the next three days, they will binge on filth and will grow into two more larva stages. After about six days, they will encase themselves as barrel-shaped pupa.

• Blow Fly Health Hazards

Blow flies are types of flies in New Jersey that you may find to be intimidating with the loud noise they make, but they cannot bite or sting you. Sadly, there are some health risks if they infest your space. Blowflies have the potential to lay eggs on animals. This can cause maggots to form on the pet and infect the pet with a parasitic infection.

Similar to houseflies and other types of flies in New Jersey, blowflies enjoy their share of rotten material and feces. They can transfer this bacterium to your home, where you can encounter it.

• Plan of Action for Blow Fly Eradication

Securing holes in screen doors and windows is an important action to take to keep blowflies out as well as keeping any food eaten outdoors covered. Lastly, children running in and out during the summer months are known to let flies in, and this can significantly be enhanced when you have trash sitting around for them to eat.

Fruit Flies

It makes sense that these fruit and veggie lovers would be content in the Garden State. If you have a garden or have products in the house that are a bit overripe, you may notice these gnat-sized types of flies in New Jersey swarming around the place. The sweetness of nectar and different types of fruits attract fruit flies. Some examples are melons, tomatoes, bananas, and potatoes. They are also attracted to the scent of rotting fruit. If you make any fermented food items, you are a viable target for a fruit fly invasion.

• Fruit Fly Bodies

These tiny gnats are about 1/8 inch long and have a light tan head and thorax, as well as bright red eyes. Their abdomens are usually black, and they have six legs and one set of wings. Their mouths can only suck up liquified or soft particles, and they can’t bite or sting.

• Fruit Fly Behaviors

These tiny pests can be a big problem. These types of flies in New Jersey spend their day sipping nectar from overripe fruits.

Fruit flies also enjoy moist environments, so you will probably notice them flying around the kitchen sink, especially if you have a garbage disposal. Fruit flies are types of flies in New Jersey that are usually observed in a group as they live in swarms.

• Fruit Fly Life Cycle

One of the reasons that fruit flies can quickly turn into an infestation is their rapid maturation rate. Female fruit flies lay about 500 eggs at a time in rotting fruit and vegetation. They may also breed on wet and dirty mopheads. The eggs will hatch within 24 hours. Fruit fly larvae complete their maturation from pupae to adult in about a week. The new adults feed and lay more eggs, so their numbers increase exponentially.

• Fruit Fly Health Hazards

Fruit flies are types of flies in New Jersey that don’t usually pose a risk to fresh produce that is properly washed. Even for slightly overripe fruit, maggot damage is only on the surface. Just because they don’t wallow in feces and dead carcasses doesn’t mean they can’t harbor hazardous microbes.

• Plan Of Action for Fruit Fly Eradication

If you don’t want fruit flies in your home, the first step is to be proactive by removing any fruits and vegetables on the counters. Store these things in a covered container in your refrigerator. Once an item has become overly ripe, throw it away.

Other Types of Flies in New Jersey

While these are the most common flies you will encounter in New Jersey, you will also have the occasional encounter with these types of flies in New Jersey:

• Deer Fly
• Horse Fly
• Black Fly
• Stable Fly
• Snipe Fly
• Sand Fly
• Biting Midges
• Mosquitoes
• Greenhead Fly

The horsefly can bite, and it hurts as much as a bee sting. Additionally, the mosquito is considered a fly, though few know about it. They pose the most significant health risk in the area as they carry deadly diseases with them.

Getting Professional Help

While most people find that they can handle a fly issue on their own, there are times when the situation can become out of hand. It may be helpful to contact a professional pest control specialist.

Many types of flies in New Jersey do not really infest homes or cause structural damage. However, they can drive you crazy as well as cause you expenses with lost food.

Still, flies can bring many germs into your home, so it’s essential to get this problem under control. No one likes to be lying in bed with a pesky fly buzzing around their head. If your fly problem seems to be getting worse rather than better, then a New Jersey pest control professional can help.

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