Just spent too many (unsuccessful) minutes hunting a fly in my kitchen. I tried to encourage it out the door but it clearly wants to stay.
It’s goading me and it’s bloody massive. Like bumblebee size.
I went at it with a magazine, kitchen roll and dishcloths but all were fruitless.
I read they perceive time differently so is it that they see me in slow motion? How does something operate in the world around them at a different ‘base speed’ if that is the case?
EDIT/UPDATE: thanks for all the comments. Some very cool and interesting things said that I’m going to follow up on. Not sure if it was the same one but a little while ago approached another behemoth of a fly with a white kitchen roll super slow and successful smushed it. Almost felt bad. Almost.
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Wind resistance buffets them away from blunt weapons. They are small and light, and the air displacement in front of a fast-moving object is like a cushion that moves them out of harm’s way. That’s why fly swatters or electrified tennis rackets are more effective.
They feel the air pressure, even if they can’t see it. (But also, they have wicked eyes so they see a lot and react a lot to movement). But it’s also why the paper towel trick works. They apparently can’t see “white” so if u approach slowly (so as to not disturb air pressure too much), you can pretty much grab a fly with a white paper towel.
I wrote a poem once about how flies see the world in slow motion. It’s not just fanciful whimsy – there are scientific studies on it.
We can only process so many images per second. So, if you move your hand super fast, it blurs or you can’t see it move at all. Smaller animals with fast metabolisms can process images faster. Like having more frames per second on a video. This makes time “feel” slower to them. Or makes their reactions seem faster to us.
Obviously, I don’t think they can say how a fly feels with any objectivity.
Google : “fly’s perception of time” or similar for an article or two about it. There’s lots.
The trick to kill flies is, a fast and hard clap just above them. With a bit of practice you can 1-clap-1-kill them all.
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Adding to all answers here. I saw this video last year , it’s interesting.
I always thought it was latency. As larger creatures we have a much larger neural network for messages to traverse. A fly as small as it is has a much smaller network and can react much faster than you can swing, once its noticed the swing.
A smaller body means nerves and the brain can communicate and carry out directions faster. Nerves are fast but all signals have a travel time, and then a processing time in our brains, before sending out another signal to respond. A lot of insects also have a more decentralized nervous system, which also helps them instinctively react to stimuli like incoming objects very quickly.
The other factor is the compound eyes of many insects, while not great for detail, are exceptionally well designed for detecting movement in a wide range around them. They don’t really know whats coming at them, but they see you moving very clearly.
Fly has a small nervous system specifically tailored to quickly take off and, well, fly, whenever something large moves towards it.
You have a large nervous system, on the other hand. Even before you consider any sort of adaptation, signal transmission in neurons is not instantaneous. That’s why, no matter how hard you train, your reaction speed will be capped at tens of miliseconds it takes for signal propagation.
Use a spray bottle with water, even if airborne. Soaks their wings, fall straight down, can only walk around.
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