We’ve just swatted one in the office. There is another around somewhere, “literally a fly on the wall”, it is supposed to be “winter” here.
The one which was swatted appears tobe a large (adult) specmen of Musca Domestica (your average bog-standard fly found in Britain).
Apparently “northern winter” is supposed to kill off the adult flies…
I’ve never seen flies in January in the UK..
yet another example of climate change? This is getting quite serious I reckon, more flies mean more diseases surely?
found this whilst trying to research the phenomenon
Quote:
In 2004, the Bloomington Stock Center and Laurie Tompkins of NIH worked with the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of State to have the Universal Postal Convention amended to allow the mailing of flies. In January 2005, the Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union voted to accelerate the implementation date of the new regulation to May 1, 2005.
As this all seems legal and above board, I’m sorely tempted to send a New Year gift to Mr Dubya as part of the “special relationship”