Why do flies rub their hands together whenever they’re not airborne?
In: Biology
Flies have little hairs all over ~~there~~ their body that they use to basically see and feel their way around the world. Because these hairs are so small, and the flies are always moving though the air, they get dirty easily making it hard for the fly to “see”. When flies land, they will rub all the dirt off of their hairs and brush them off their hands so they can sense the world more clearly again!
Edit: A lot of people asked why flies have eyes if they can sense with these little hairs. These hairs help the fly feel, smell, and taste which all help it “see” and understand it’s environment better in addition to sight. So if a fly lands onto your peanut butter sandwich, the hairs will tell the fly 1. that it has landed on something, and 2. that that something tastes good so they should eat it.
They are cleaning themselves. Flies are actually very clean animals behavior wise, so whenever they aren’t flying around irritating you, they are cleaning themselves. If you watch them over a large period of time undisturbed, they will clean their whole bodies that same general way.
Hi Everyone,
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