Why Flies are So Hard to Swat

Posted by Alex in Animal on August 28, 2008 at 11:15 pm


Why are flies so hard to swat? Professor Michael Dickinson of Caltech, who spent two decades studying the neurobiology and biomechanics of locomotion in the annoying bugs (for real!) knew the answer:

He took high-speed digital video of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) when faced with a swatter, revealing how the creature’s pinpoint sized brain is hard wired to turn the looming shadow into an appropriate pattern of leg and body motion to prime it for a speedy getaway.

Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and plonks its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction.

All of this is executed within about 100 thousandths of a second after the fly first spots the swatter, says the study in the journal Current Biology with graduate student Gwyneth Card.

Prof Dickinson also revealed the scientific way to improve your success rate in swatting flies. The video clip of the fly avoiding the swatter is strangely mesmerizing: Link (the clip automatically started in my browser, be forewarned)



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COMMENT

10 comments to "Why Flies are So Hard to Swat"

  1. Johnny Cat
    August 29th, 2008 at 12:41 am

    Awesome stuff, to be sure, especially that backward flip move they tend to do. But if you hold your palms vertically at about a foot apart, then surround the airspace about 3 inches above the fly, all you need to do is clap, and around 50% of the time you’ll get it.

    I think I might have learned this trick from Neatorama.

  2. Peeves
    August 29th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    I always figured if was because they were super sensitive to disturbances in the air when you move towards them. Wow.

  3. Christophe
    August 29th, 2008 at 6:09 am

    anyone who ever had plucked flies wings know how high they can jump.

    (yes, kids can be cruel in a boring musical or german class… I don’t put that on my resume ;)

  4. Polx
    August 29th, 2008 at 7:44 am

    I had assumed that it was the olume of air that you were moving in front of your swatter acted as a wave upon which the fly “surfed” away.

  5. Bill
    August 29th, 2008 at 8:49 am

    I’ve been Obama-rolled! The article was about flies but the video (that auto-started, btw) was an Obama speech. It’s Obama 24/7 EVERYWHERE. I wish I could have seen the fly video, though.

  6. Michele
    August 29th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Flies are extremely easy to kill if you blind them with a laser pointer for a few seconds before trying to swat them…

  7. Justin E
    August 30th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    I agree with Johnny except I don’t go 3 inches above.
    I work in a bakery and the sugar atrracts flies through the pick-up window. I squashe dthree flies with my bare hands yesterday. (and then I washed my hands)

    P.S. I was sitting down and I looked at the comment box from a steep angle. There’s a Neatorama astronaut telling you to be nice only visible from this angle. Has anyone seen this?

  8. Robert
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    The NONPAREIL answer to successfully swatting flies, and fun, too: The Flyshooter. Google it.

  9. Jon Dyer
    September 4th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    The best way that I’ve found to swat a fly is to wait until it lands and put your hands about eight inches apart above and behind the fly. When you clap your hands together, the fly will be between them.

  10. Sid Innovations
    October 1st, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    You can easily kill fly with Fly Swatter pro. This new swatter is base on a study of a horses tail but it kill fly instead of shoo it away.This is much better then the old fancy kind that the professor was using. There is a web site if you search for Fly Swatter pro try one for yourself.


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