It can be considered a common truth that all flies are an annoying hindrance to a person. Not only do they emit an unpleasant buzz, they also crawl annoyingly over the body, and live in questionable places - accumulations of human feces. Moreover, flies are carriers of pathogens that can even cause death of a person.
Probably, many people noticed a strange feature behind the flies: when they sit on something, they certainly begin to perform a certain action - they rub their front and hind legs against each other. To find out why they are doing such manipulations, it is worth turning to chemistry and zoology.
Why do flies rub their paws on their paws?
Flies are fairly clean insects, albeit unpleasant in nature. They rub their paws for a reason. They clean them. In principle, this is a fairly logical explanation. At any opportunity, a fly, temporarily crouching on something, makes itself clean, like a cat. She "washes herself": rubs her hind and front legs against each other, straightens and rubs her wings.
But the point here is not so much a sincere desire on the part of the fly to be clean, but rather in its animal instinct and necessity. In other words, cleaning the feet and wings is not a tribute to cleanliness, but a vital necessity. The fact is that on the tips of the flies' feet there are special small pads called pulvillas. They are covered with microscopic hairs.
It is from these bristles that the fly secretes a special sticky liquid, similar to fat. The sticky secret is actually a mixture of fats and carbohydrates. It is this substance, due to its viscous structure, that allows the insect to adhere without problems even on the smoothest surfaces.
Of course, small particles of dirt and other debris will stick to the sticky flies' feet, which must be immediately disposed of in such a simple way. Flies fly all over the place, so their feet get dirty very quickly, losing their stickiness.
From all of the above, we can draw the following conclusion: flies cannot be called painfully clean insects, they just need to clean their paws. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for flies to move on surfaces, including mirrors, glass and ceilings.
Interesting about flies
Scientists recently made a discovery about flies. Special organs of touch and taste were found on their paws. It turns out that flies recognize the taste of food not with their proboscis, but with their feet! It became known that flies' feet are not only not inferior in this to the human language, but also surpass it several times. There is an opinion that the "washing" of the paws is also a kind of artificial improvement of one's perception of taste.
