Barfing Flies
Did You Know…Flies taste with their feet?
Insects have taste organs which are usually located on their mouth parts; but some insects, such as house flies can taste with their feet. When a fly walks on your pizza, nerves in the fly’s feet detect the presence of different chemicals in the food and send a message to the fly’s brain.
Human saliva (spit), contains a chemical called amylase. Amylase digests (breaks apart) starch , a complex chemical found in many foods, into smaller chemicals. Flies regurgitate (vomits) on the food they want to eat. Amylase is part of the digestive juices in the vomit. These juices quickly begins to digest the food forming a liquid that the fly can suck into its stomach through a feeding tube. This tube is called a proboscis. This tube has a sponge-like tip that first soaks up the liquefied food, and then it is sucked through the tube to the fly’s stomach.