Module 12 – Australian Flies

Transcript of Module 12 – Australian Flies

So, today I wanted to give you the lowdown (1) on flies in Australia. ‘The lowdown’, that is like information about them, details about them. The lowdown on flies in Australia. And I’m also going to tell you how flies will help turn poo (2) into birds. That’s right. They can turn poo into birds.

So, no summer barbecue in Australia would be complete without a certain uninvited guest (3) who always shows up before the meat even hits the barbie (4) and begins to sizzle (5), and has you giving the great Aussie Salute (6) to keep them out of your eyes, ears, and mouth. The Australian fly. However, there isn’t just one type of fly.

There are estimated to be more than 30,000 species of flies in Australia—more than enough species to make sure every single cubic inch of Australian airspace is occupied, whether in the desert, rainforest, or at the beach.

Despite the extensive (7) fly diversity in the Land of Oz, in the land Down Under, you’re only likely to come across four different groups of flies, which aren’t necessarily all equally as annoying. And these groups are: the bush fly, the housefly, the blowfly, and the mosquito. Yes, the mosquito is in fact a species of very specialised (8) fly, right. The mouthparts (9) of mosquitoes have obviously changed to become much more about injecting (10), well, piercing (11), and then sucking blood.

So, why does the fly population skyrocket (12) in summer? This occurs because of the warmer temperatures, which really speed up (13) the life cycle (14) of flies as well as other insects, obviously. So, it allows their numbers to explode (15) into fly-swattingly irritating proportions. Their life cycle from egg to maggot to pupa and to adult is only between 7 to 14 days usually. So, imagine when that speeds up, right. Imagine how many can breed and how quickly their numbers can increase.

How long have flies been pissing off (16) the average Australian (17)? Well, the earliest records show that from the moment Europeans set foot on the Land of Oz, in Australia, they were wholeheartedly welcomed by millions of sweat-thirsty (18) flies invading their eyes, ears, mouths, and any part of their body that they could get their suckers (19) on to.

Their aptitude (20) at being a formidable nuisance was instantly noticed by Captain Cook who discussed them as being “horrendous“. Needless to say, though, Indigenous Australians would have been thinking, “Yeah, mate! No shit, Sherlock! We’ve had to deal with these pesky things for 40,000 years or more.”

Although I’m sure most of you think flies are incredibly irritating and you wish they would just buzz off (21)—Get it? “Buzz off”—they’re actually an integral (22) part of the Australian environment and without them, we’d be up to our necks in poo.

So, what would happen tomorrow if flies just disappeared from Australia? Well, I’ve been thinking for a number of years, “Pete, they’d probably just cross the ocean from Indonesia or Papua New Guinea, from our neighbouring countries (23), and repopulate (24) the country within a few weeks.” Yes, okay. You got me. Well done. But let’s imagine that their return was indefinitely put on hold. Their absence would lead to a number of unpleasant and unforeseen (25) issues.

So, there’d be a cascading effect (26) on the food chain (27), right? And it would sort of be a cascading upwards effect (28), because flies are at the bottom of the food chain.

So, you may not realise it, but flies are actually an integral part of the ecosystem because they feed so many other animals like spiders, reptiles, frogs, and birds, and other insects, and those animals would all be affected and they may die off. Animals that feed on these flies would all die if they no longer had food.

As this famine (29) started picking up pace and more and more bodies started dropping—“dropping like flies” (30), you might say—there would be no flies to lay their eggs on the carcasses (31) of these dead animals as well as the poo that these animals had deposited (32) prior to kicking the bucket (33), prior to dying. And normally, these eggs would hatch into larvae (34), into maggots, and then consume the poo or the rotting carcasses of these animals, and then themselves grow into nice juicy flies that can continue the cycle of life as they get eaten by birds or spiders, etc.

So, that is why flies in Australia may be an incredibly irritating pest (35)—you may have to swat your face a little bit when you get here and it’s summer time—but they are definitely an important part of the ecosystem in Australia, and we should all be thankful that we have flies here, because without them, we’d be up to our necks in poo.