WTF?! Fly Puke???

Prolly both?

Q: What are the little black dots that flies leave behind all over the surfaces in my house? (Alison, Lissewege, Belgium)

A: Flies have a disgusting way of feeding. They can't eat solid food since their spongy mouthparts are too soft to break up food. So, they soften the victual by spitting on it. The saliva melts the piece of food. They sop it up like a sponge into their digestive tract. Since the food is already liquefied, flies digest nutrients fast and soon expel fecal material.

There you have it ? the two sources of flyspecks ? saliva and fecal matter. As the fly eats, it scatters spit. Soon after eating, it eliminates waste.

Additional reading:

Ok, so now the question is WHY would someone imitate that on furniture?

De gustibus non est disputandum.

Even more amazing, is when you see printed fake wood with that effect. I just don't get it; I'm one of those people that think that wood should look like, you know, _wood_, and if you want a red wood when you're done, you should start with a red wood; if you want a dark wood when you're done, start with a dark wood, that sort of thing.

"That's not a fly, it's a ladybug." "Damn, I wish my eyes were as good as yours."

Gerry

I was under the impression that the specks were there to imitate pecan. I could be wrong though, I think it was something I read somewhere a long time ago. Jim

You can see this on a revoltingly grand scale in the movie "The Fly" - not the original, but the remake starring Jeff Goldblum. He sits down in front of a box of donuts, hurls all over it, then slurps up the resulting mess. The look on Geena Davis' face as she observes this scene is priceless.

B.

Interesting. By any chance did this scene take place in a furniture factory?

Airsick?

Maybe it is my hydroponic lettuce again, but I was always under the impression that the 'specks' were supposed to imitate worm holes. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the 'chewed by bugs look' is what they are after. Flyshit has little appeal to the trompe d'oeil artist. Worm holes, on the other hand, can be intriguing. (Wrong forum to be discussing travel to other dimensions and all that rot.)

When faced with flyshit on your melamine, you will find out that laquer thinner barely touches (removes) it. Same with denatured (Methyl Hydrate) alcohol...but if you use water, it wipes right up! Betcha Martha didn't know that.

Rob---> who thinks the word 'barfridge' looks funny.

Izzat why they split up?

Dave in Fairfax

Hold on. Nobody is getting the point at all, here! The real question is: how did the manufacturer get flies to puke/crap on command on the dresser?

Focus, people . . . FOCUS!

FoggyTown

We _have_ been talking about that. Cher, Aaron Neville, Whitney Houston...

Indeed.

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Instant fly puke.

(snip)

(snip)

Bastard. That's gonna take beer to get out of my head.

Let's not get into an "earworm" fight; nobody wins that battle. Ever.