Information about insects

There are about 120 species of flies (e.g. housefly, blowfly, hornets). The housefly is by far the most common fly, and the term ‘housefly’ is really a name for a whole series of different species, which can be found in and around the house, and in stables. The full grown housefly is feeding itself on food waste and does not sting.

The fly has an enormous reproduction capacity. The female housefly lives for about 2,5 months and lays between 600 to 1.000 eggs during her life. During the warmer periods of the year, it takes on average 2 to 3 weeks for an egg to turn into a full grown fly. In heated stables the reproduction continues throughout the year. In combination with this manure and rotting food waste are excellent breeding places. On average 1 fly reproduces no less than 12 generations in one year. In optimal conditions one female housefly could reproduce 21,6 million offspring and another 27 miljard eggs that have not hatched yet. If you think of it, you can imagine what the impact would be on the entire population if you would catch one single female fly.

Flies are not only an inconvenience and a nuisance, but they are also known distributors of food poisoning and Salmonella. Moreover, they can transfer serious diseases like Typhus, Cholera, Tuberculose, and Dysentery. All fly species are able to carry bacterial infections, which are then transferred onto other organisms.

With housefly nuisance you have to look for the breeding ground and get rid of it. Manure and food waste are for instance excellent breeding grounds. There are lots of insecticides on offer, with which fly disturbance can be controlled. Due to the easiness with which this fly species can become resistant, insecticides should not be used systematically. With the products offered on this website you can control flies in a very effective and natural way. Please look at the movie about the performance of the BliZzz Mega Trap, to see how many flies you can catch.

A female mosquito has only 1 purpose in her whole life, which is to find blood with which she can reproduce offspring. Because she lays new eggs every few days, she also needs to sting every 3-4 days in order to produce proteins using the blood. With each sting, she takes about 5 micro litre blood. It does not matter to her if it is blood from a human or an animal, although some mosquito species have a distinct preference. If there are different animals or humans in her surroundings, she will choose the yummiest snack by selecting on the smell. A mosquito always knows how to find her potential blood donor, even in the dark or at a great distance. This is because of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans and animals exhale continuously. This carbon dioxide is being picked up by the air flow and can be noted somewhere else by the female mosquito. She then only has to follow this trail (against the air flow) to get to her blood donor. When she enters the area, in which are several prey, she will select again which one is the most attractive. A mosquito feels, besides the already discussed CO2, also attracted to (ultra violet) light, scent, and warmth.

Only the female mosquito stings, as she needs a blood feast to produce proteins to be able to reproduce offspring. When a mosquito has found a blood donor, she will sting it with her hollow tube. While the mosquito stings, she injects a blood thinner under your skin, to prevent your blood from clotting, so she can drink as long as needed to produce proteins. This anti-coagulant causes an allergic reaction to human and animal: a bump occurs that itches annoyingly. The more you touch the bump, the more it will itch, as the anti-coagulant can be spread under the skin. Animals have the same reaction as a human, the most known example can be found with horses. Horses are being stung a lot by small mosquitoes like the culicoides, a species that turns into a plague more often. The bites of these insects cause with some horses an allergic reaction, making them itch enormously, and chave (tail and manes rash).

A female mosquito lays about a 100 eggs in standing water or a moisture environment every few days. These eggs will hatch after two days and a larva swims for about 8 days before it turns into a pupa. The pupa will hatch after another day, and a new mosquito is born. Luckily mosquitoes of both sexes are born. They almost look identical, but for human and animal there is an important difference: a male one lives of nectar, only the female one stings, as she needs blood for her eggs. As soon as a female mosquito hatches, she will go find a male. She only has to look around, as the male is flying around in big groups with other males. The female jumps into the group, gets fertilized and flies away. With that single fertilization she has received enough semen from the male to be able to reproduce offspring for the rest of her life. The only thing she now still needs, is blood to be able to lay the eggs using the semen. With the absence of natural enemies in the larva and pupa stage, the number of mosquitoes can skyrocket. During research that is done, over 50.000 larva have been found in one square meter. This can cause a mosquito plague, a serious problem that has to be dealt with.

Mosquitoes often occur around open waters. If you do not live near water, but are still bothered by mosquitoes, then it is important to locate the source. Think of a rain barrel (empty and cover it), still water in the gutter (clean it and make sure of sufficient slope), or the bucket or planter filled with a layer of water (empty it). Also inside the house there are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, like a damp basement or crawl space. Make sure the water can run away. When this is not possible, place insect netting to make your house unreachable or to shield the breeding ground. Furthermore, you can place insect screens at windows and doors, and use a mosquito net in your bedroom. With these you can effectively shield some specific parts of your living space.

Sure there are. Based on all research worldwide, more and more is known about the behavior of mosquitoes and the things that they prefer, like and find disgusting. We know that they are attracted to CO2, Ultra violet light, scent, and warmth, and how they select. However, we do not know all. The known and foremost proven information is used to design mosquito traps. The most professional traps, until now, use carbon dioxide (CO2) to lure mosquitoes. Contrary to other mosquito lamps, the BliZzz mosquito trap, offered on this website, does emit small amounts of CO2, with which mosquitoes are lured and caught. The amount of CO2 produced by the lamp is not harmful for humans.

From an experiment done in 2011, by the Wageningen Research Institute Alterra, it is shown that mosquitoes can fly further then always thought.

During the experiment 10.000 mosquitoes were set free in a confined area. All mosquitoes flew at minimum 50 meters, and it seemed that the mosquitoes could fly at least 160 meters. This in contrary to what was always speculated, that the greater part of the mosquito population does not fly further than 50 meters.

The Horsefly (also known as Brems or Biting fly), is a member of the Tabanidae family. They are bloodsucking insects, of which there are 8.000 different species known in the world. They are visual hunters, have big eyes, normally have a beautiful colour pattern, and are strongly built. Horseflies usually occur in wet areas and in places, which offer both sun and shadow. Think for instance of a row of trees next to a meadow. Female horseflies bite to gather enough energy to lay their eggs. The male ones feed themselves with nectar or the juice of plants.

Horseflies do not sting as they do not have a sting. The females do bite however in order to gather enough energy to lay their eggs. The blood thirsty female horseflies come to scents, warmth, and movement to find their prey. When the females hunt, they quickly settle and almost immediately bite. Due to the shape of her mouth and mouth parts, which consists of several small knives that can cut open the skin, she is able to bite through thin cloths. To prevent the blood from clotting, saliva is released when biting, which causes itching and swelling of the skin. A bite is painful and can bring along a bacterial infection, which is normally treated well with an antibiotic. After a bite, horseflies cannot fly away immediately, so they can easily be killed by for instance a rolling hand. Especially cattle (horses, cows) can experience a lot of inconvenience from horseflies. If there is not enough cattle around in a certain area, everything that moves, or looks attractive, will be attacked.

The eggs are being laid in piles of some hundreds to thousands of eggs. This usually happens on plants which grow on a moist soil, like wet meadows, roadside verges, and at the bottom of a ditch. Depending on the climate circumstances, eggs hatch after a few days or sometimes after a few weeks. Horseflies develop slowly (about 1 generation each year), but full grown flies often hatch at the same time, which can cause plagues. This last fact has the advantage that the horsefly can be controlled effectively, so that the problem will have diminished significately the following year.

The most well-known horsefly species are the large marsh horseflies, the dark giant horseflies, the common horseflies, and the twin-lobed deerflies. Large marsh horseflies and the dark giant horseflies (Tabanus sudeticus) are medium to very large horseflies. They have big eyes and a triangle shaped head, and a broad brown abdomen. They sting horses and cows in the belly or between the shoulder blades, as these are areas out of reach of the tail.

The common horseflies (Haematopota) are slim, of grey colour, and with a fine spot pattern on the wings and abdomen. This species stings more at the legs. Some rain horseflies attack people, like the Normal Rain horsefly, which can be really a nuisance particularly during high humidity.

The twin-lobed deerflies (Chrysops) are very small. They often have a yellow spot on the abdomen and eyes, which are green iridescent with living animals. Generally they occur at moist heaths, raised bogs, and light forested areas, seldom far away from water. The twin-lobed deerfly stings a human less often than a rain horsefly. Reproduction occurs at muddy banks and other wet biotopes.

No. There is a big difference between horseflies and hornets: hornets do not sting but lay eggs on the lower legs and in the manes/neck of the horse. You can recognize the eggs as small yellow spots in the fur. These eggs hatch and the larva are being licked by the horse, after which they end up in the stomach after about 4 weeks, where they attach themselves, to get loose at the beginning of the warm season, and end up in the manure. Within a month a full grown hornet appears from the manure, which can reproduce itself within 3 weeks.

A hornet should not be mistaken for the European Hornet. The European hornet is a big kind of wasp, which is able to sting. The European hornet is a social wasp and will only get aggressive within a radius of 5 meters from its nest, or if it feels threatened.

You can control the nuisance of horseflies by wearing covering and thick enough cloths. This makes it impossible for horseflies to bite through your cloths. The blood thirsty female horseflies come to scents, warmth, and movement to find prey. Horseflies can find their prey more difficult, if sprays or spreads with a scent barricade are used. If you wish to control the horseflies in a natural manner, then you will have to use a horsefly trap. This lures the horseflies to a trap, from which they cannot escape, and die. The black (warm!) ball, which hangs underneath the trap, moves a little, so it looks like a horse’s behind. The horseflies will look on the ball in vain for blood, and when they fly off they get trapped into the net and eventually in the trap itself.