Why Are Flies So Hard To Swat? - video Dailymotion

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6/17/2025

One secret is their specialized hind wings. High-speed cameras show that flies' modified hind wings help with their speedy takeoffs.

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00:00Why are flies so hard to swat?

00:04A fly buzzes past your head and lands nearby.

00:08You grab a fly swatter and you strike.

00:12But no matter how quick you are, the fly escapes unharmed.

00:16What is it that makes flies so hard to swat?

00:20Flies have many adaptations that give them extra speed, maneuverability

00:24and perception, making them very, very good at

00:28protecting and evading your swats. And new evidence shows

00:32that one of the ways they do that is with vibrations of stick-like structures

00:36with a knob at the end, called halteers.

00:40When halteers vibrate during flight, they're sensing body rotations and

00:44transmitting information to the flies' wings, which helps flies to stabilize their bodies.

00:48However, houseflies also vibrate their halteers

00:52while walking, but scientists didn't know why. So they looked at

00:56houseflies and their close relatives to see if oscillating halteers

01:00affected how the flies launch into the air.

01:02Scientists filmed flies during takeoff using high-speed cameras,

01:06recording footage at speeds up to 3,000 frames per second.

01:10They found that houseflies, and other closely related flies,

01:14launch themselves around five times faster than other flies,

01:18and with just one wingbeat.

01:20When scientists removed those flies' halteers,

01:22it took them longer to take off, and some took a nosedive

01:26and crash-landed.

01:28But halteers aren't the only secret weapon in a fly's evasive arsenal.

01:32Fruit flies can change course in under one one-hundredth of a second,

01:36about 50 times faster than an eye can blink.

01:40Flies also have exceptional vision, which helps them react to a threat,

01:44and adjust their trajectory within milliseconds before takeoff.

01:50With all these built-in advantages,

01:52it's no wonder that the fly you're trying to swat

01:54can easily escape and just buzz off.

01:58Aerodynamic flies.

02:02Just another one of life's little mysteries.

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