Not For The Squeamish

They land on the rim of my cup, in my tea leaves, stick in my hair. Musca domestica. The housefly. It’s gotten colder outside, and they fly languidly. They hardly care when I wave them away. I’ve been taught that everything has its place in the ecosystem. I know they must exist for a reason, but I still shudder when they touch me and gag when they vomit on the edge of my cup. So, I typed beneficial flies into a search engine, and the following are some findings, none of them favorable. This quote pretty much sums it up: “Common household pests, they visit dumps, sewers and garbage heaps, feeding on fecal matter, discharges from wounds and sores, sputum, and all sorts of moist, decaying matter such as spoiled fish, eggs and meat. Flies regurgitate and excrete wherever they come to rest and thereby are ideally suited to mechanically transmit disease organisms. House flies are suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans.” Cornell University asserts that house flies can transmit over 100 human and animal disease-causing organisms. Texas A&M Agrilife Extension adds a whole other dimension, revealing that larvae can damage seeds and seedlings. I was surprised that these scientific sites all placed these “filth flies” firmly in the category of pest. Is it possible that the flies serve no useful function, or at least not one that outweighs the harm they cause, not to mention they annoyance they create?