Why Do Houseflies................

[Tilly2]

always hang about in the one window that doesn't open?

I've just had a real battle with a fly that kept walking up and down the middle kitchen window. Everytime I 'shushed' it with a duster it flew into the air and landed back on the same window, not the two either side which were open.

[quinie]

because they're fly??

[DaisyNonna]

Cannot remember ever seeing a housefly in my flat. No, don't have a spider colony, do have open windows. Wonder why?

[frugalfred]

I suspect they can detect infra-red and therefore fly to the warmest window pane - i.e. the one that is shut.

[tamborine]

The window warms their cold feet

[silliemillie]

Tilly- its the same as how they always manage to find their way in (against the odds) but can't find their way out.

[Sammy48]

Why do flies go round and round the light fitting in the middle of the room. ?

[frugalfred]

Insects are poikilothermic, i.e. they do not have a constant body temperature, but their temperature assumes that of their immediate environment. The colder they are, the less active they are. Many hibernate in a warm, sheltered place over the Winter, emerging when the temperature rises. The area around a (filament) light-bulb is a warm place for them.

[Sammy48]

Thank you Fred, that's very interesting, but they also fly around the light fitting when it's not on and in the summer months.

[flump1]

Put up some signs Tilly...no vacancies works for me .

[frugalfred]

Sammy, my theory is that lampshades act like some flowers - i.e. the shape is concave and this concentrates the heat. Consider the shape of a buttercup - its concave, deep saucer-like shape concentrates infra-red heat, in much the same way as a satellite receiver dish concentrates radio waves onto the bit in the middle. The colour of the lampshades may also have an effect. What we do know is that many insects can detect not just the humanly-visible spectrum, but infra-red and ultra-violet. Here endeth the lesson!

[Svejk]

And there was me thinking you were waving at me, tilly.