{"id":2676,"date":"2012-02-29T14:20:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T19:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=2676"},"modified":"2021-07-19T10:34:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:34:58","slug":"blow-flies-and-flesh-flies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/blow-flies-and-flesh-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Blow Flies and Flesh Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Blow flies<\/strong> and <strong>Flesh flies<\/strong> are frequently discussed in tandem, because both of these kinds of flies are attracted to carrion, dung, or anything that is rotting or decaying.\u00a0 You are apt to see them around compost bins and manure piles, for example. Flesh flies derive their name, however, from the fact that a few species lay their eggs in the open wounds of mammals.\u00a0 Blow flies are apparently named from an old English expression used to describe meat that had fly eggs laid on it, which was said to be &#8216;fly-blown&#8217; (the earliest records of its use can be found in some of William Shakespeare&#8217;s plays).<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 16%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2676 gallery-columns-6 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-02.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-02-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Photo of a type of blow fly commonly called a Green Bottle Fly.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4086\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-02-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-02-32x32.jpg 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4086'>\n\t\t\t\tA type of blow fly commonly called a Green Bottle Fly.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/01\/Blow-Fly-1.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/01\/Blow-Fly-1-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Photo of a type of fly called a Blow Fly\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-6737\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/01\/Blow-Fly-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/01\/Blow-Fly-1-32x32.jpg 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-6737'>\n\t\t\t\tBlow Fly\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-01.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-01-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"photo of a Blow Fly on a rock\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4088\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-01-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2013\/02\/BlowFly-01-32x32.jpg 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4088'>\n\t\t\t\tBlow Fly\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/03\/Fleshfly.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/03\/Fleshfly-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Photo of a Flesh fly resting on a leaf\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-5745\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/03\/Fleshfly-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/03\/Fleshfly-32x32.jpg 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-5745'>\n\t\t\t\tFlesh Fly\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Blow flies are in a family of flies called Calliphoridae whereas Flesh flies belong to a family called Sarcophagidae, which comes from the Greek \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03bf for <em>sarco-<\/em> (= flesh), and \u03c6\u03ac\u03b3\u03b5 for<em> phage<\/em> (= eating), i.e. flesh-eating.\u00a0 Blow fly (synonym: <em>blowfly<\/em>) adults tend to have metallic coloration on their thorax (middle section) and abdomen, too (often bright blue-green), whereas flesh flies do not; flesh flies, instead, have black and gray longitudinal stripes on their thorax, and what is described as checkering on the abdomen.\u00a0 Also, blow flies have a fatter and more rounded appearance overall.\u00a0 Flesh flies are more streamlined in their overall body shape, with a much more tapered abdomen.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Additional Information: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipm.iastate.edu\/ipm\/iiin\/fblowfli.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Blow Flies and Flesh Flies<\/b><\/a> <\/strong>(Iowa State University)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blow flies and Flesh flies are frequently discussed in tandem, because both of these kinds of flies are attracted to carrion, dung, or anything that is rotting or decaying.\u00a0 You are apt to see them around compost bins and manure piles, for example. Flesh flies derive their name, however, from the fact that a few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":1561,"menu_order":78,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2676","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blow Flies and Flesh Flies - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/blow-flies-and-flesh-flies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blow Flies and Flesh Flies - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blow flies and Flesh flies are frequently discussed in tandem, because both of these kinds of flies are attracted to carrion, dung, or anything that is rotting or decaying.\u00a0 You are apt to see them around compost bins and manure piles, for example. 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