After reading this article, you may never leave food uncovered again. That white stuff you had always thought was some sort of seasoning your mother was cooking with might not be seasoning at all. Since many people don't have a clue what fly eggs look like, we thought it was important to post this article. Unless you firmly believe in the theory "What you don't know doesn't hurt you," you can stop reading now.

The housefly is a nuisance and its body is festered with bacteria that can be transmitted to our food. It seems they always know when we are eating, as they suddenly appear from nowhere, trying to taste whatever we are having. What's worst, these annoying pest have the audacity to lay their eggs on our food. That sweet piece of meat you were saving for last is a prime target for flies. All you have to do is leave your food unattended and uncovered for a short while and a fly is ready to add a few extra ingredients to your meal. The fly, a master at hiding its eggs, prefers to deposit them in the crevices of meat or whatever food it chooses to lay them on. You need a keen eye to find an egg deposit.

Life Cycle
A female housefly can lay a batch of 75 to 150 eggs at a time. A single female can lay several batches totalling up to 500 eggs in about 3 to 4 days. Eggs are laid on any suitable food source such as decomposing food in garbage, animal excrement, carrion and other decomposing organic matter. Shown below is an egg deposit on a chunk of corn beef. Food is never pretty close up. The eggs are very tiny so the photo includes a pencil to give an idea of the eggs' relative size.

Eggs hatch into larvae or maggots within one day. Full-grown maggots are ready to pupate in a few days. Before transforming to the pupa stage, the maggots crawl from their food source to find a cool place to dry. This is the stage were we often see them crawling out of our garbage. In optimal conditions, adult flies emerge from the pupae completing the process of egg to adult in about 7 to 10 days. Adult flies usually live for 15 to 25 days.