‘Just a regular day Down Under’: Horrifying picture shows a huge swarm of flies on a tradie’s shirt
- Reddit post shows hundreds of flies crawling over a man’s orange work shirt
- Australia has 30,000 species of fly – so such sights are common in some areas
- We are right to be wary as they carry diseases – which are not widespread here
A photo posted to social media showing a normal aspect of life in parts of Australia has intrigued, appalled and amused users.
The image, posted to Reddit, shows hundreds of flies crawling on the back of a tradie’s work shirt with the title ‘Just a regular day out West / Up Norf in Straya’.
‘Tradies do stink though,’ one poster responded.
‘Jeez, they should just send prisoners to the place,’ one smart alec wrote.
But wildlife-hardened Australian commenters were not too bothered.
A Reddit post showed hundreds of flies crawling over one man’s back – with the poster saying it was a ‘regular day out’ in parts of Australia
‘Get down to the floods, and find the guy with the spider fence,’ someone replied.
Another put a swarm of flies in perspective: ‘People who can freely walk around the street with guns scares me way more than anything here.’
Why Australia has so many flies is not a new question, it’s even a common search term on google.
Maybe because there are more than 30,000 different species, and because their brain, body and nervous system is perfectly designed to avoid being swatted.
That doesn’t stop people trying to swat them – and over time the action of trying to swipe away flies has become known as ‘the Australians’ salute’.
One theory as to why they’re attracted to human is that they do so to get water – and they will fly up to 5km to do so.
‘Flies seek out humans who act as mobile water drinking fountains for them,’ said University of Western Australia Associate Professor Theo Evans, from the School of Biological Sciences.
‘They are trying to find moisture, and that is why they go straight for our eyes, noses and mouths.’
‘They are not smart creatures but smart enough to know that if they fly over the ocean instead to find water, they will probably die.’
Another theory is it’s mainly the females that hover around and land on humans – because they are trying to glean protein from bodies to help them produce the nutrients to produce eggs.
But locals are right to be wary of them, according to the CSIRO.
‘Flies are responsible for the transmission of a wide variety of disease-causing micro-organisms in humans and animals,’ the CSIRO’s research on flies said.
But fortunately for Australians, most of those diseases are not widespread here.
‘Most of these diseases are absent from Australia, with exceptions such as dengue fever and some types of encephalitis. Mosquito-borne malaria has been eradicated from Australia.’
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