Duck's Nuts on Play: The (Aussie) fly

What is fat, noisy, has black netted wings and big bulging eyes?

That’s an easy question to answer when summer comes around in Australia. For, along with the brilliant sunshine, cloudless skies and still, warm evenings, comes the Australian bush fly.

An Australian bush fly. Photo courtesy of Ratabago via Creative Commons, Flickr

It’s just a fly you say. What’s the big deal? But this summer insect is not like the ordinary miniature black helicopter buzzing at your food, trying to land on your plate or cup while you are not looking. Not, this is a super-charged, super-buzzing, super-persistent, omnipresent, super- .... you get the picture.

The flies are so persistent that obstacles like your face are not daunting to them. Stand in the path of one of them and they are quite likely to fly straight into you kamikaze-style, instead of doing the sensible thing and buzzing around you. Why? On your face is where the yummy food is - they love the protein in the moisture that comes from your eyes, nose and mouth. Of course, landing in cow poo (from the more than 25 million cows in Australia) is their first love. But the story goes that dung beetles were brought in to deal with these pesky flies by burying the poo before the flies could lay their eggs in them. Then the drought came, the land dried up, the poo couldn't be buried in it and the flies headed back to annoying the 21 million people on this island continent.

An Aussie's summer essentials - cork hat, beer and beach thongs. Photo courtesy of Mugley via Creative Commons, Flickr

The bush flies are so renowned for their facial attacks that the cork hat was invented. The hat has small corks hanging off the brims - apparently deterring the flies, which don't like flying through things. In fact, the Aussie salute, which Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd explained to his US counterpart Hillary Clinton when she visited the country recently, stands for the windscreen-wiper-style waving of your hands across your face to bat away the numerous little creatures zeroing in on your face.

"See that fly over there?" Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd asked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she visited Melbourne.

One cautionary tale: A Singaporean friend’s girlfriend was visiting him over summer in Western Australia. She was having a big, hearty laugh when – GULP – a fly flew straight into her mouth and in the split-second before she realised what happened, she swallowed it. I don’t know how much protein she gained from inadvertently eating that fly, but I’m sure she missed out on the rest of the vitamins and minerals she would have taken in from eating that day as that rather uncomfortable experience would have put her off food for a time.

So what can you do to reduce contact with this menacing little pest? There are two options above – a hat with tassels swinging from it and constantly waving your hands in front of you. Giving that the cork hat is usually only used out in the bush, the “manual” Option Two is usually the one deployed by us city folk.

Fly screen and bug spray - my summer essentials.

Fly screens are also a must. Most homes come with door-like fly screens on top of their front doors, so you can air the home during the hot days of summer while keeping the flies at bay. A fair few also have such screens for their windows and balcony doors, although their presence might spoil the view somewhat if they are fixed and can’t be pulled across or opened out. For those with homes that come with no such screens, such as yours truly, you can buy a ready-made fly screen that opens out to fit most windows.

Bug killers and insect repellents come in handy. Just like in Singapore, manufacturers of insect repellents and killer sprays regularly advertise on television their latest revolutionary breakthrough we-get-rid-of-those-pesty-little-buggers-once-and-for-all products. Do they actually work? My personal experience is that the flies are so numerous and omnipresent that trying to spray them to death would only rake up a huge bill on my part and make my floor very sticky. And other flies would still keep coming. Insect repellents are effective, but you're not able to spray them on your face ... are you?

So you have been warned. If you ever come to Australia during summer, don’t just watch out for the melanoma-inducing sun, the hungry sharks or the kangaroos on the roads. There’s also a little black bush fly that could contribute to your experience of Australia’s unique cuisine.

Some images are taken from the internet.