Why It’s So Hard To Swat a Fly

Fail. Aaagh! What a waste of an hour, running around with a rolled up newspaper trying to get that fly that keeps buzzing around your head. 3 things: why isn’t it afraid of you and why won’t it just fly away? And how is it so incredibly fast? Flies actually have a pretty normal speed for their size. You’re just a bit too slow.

A tiny fly brain reacts several times faster than yours to what it sees. 1 second to the fly feels like 5 or 6 to you. When a fly looks at you, it sees you as if you’re hanging out at the bottom of your local pool, moving around really slowly.

What if you dropped a balloon from your bedroom window and watched it fall to the ground. That’s how slow a fly sees regular things fall! So it has ninja reaction speeds, but it also has special eyes. They’re divided into thousands of receptors that capture light all at the same time.

You use small muscles to turn your eyes and head around to look in different directions. Flies don’t have these muscles, they don’t need them. They can see in every direction at the same time, almost. No matter what side you attack from, that fly’s almost definitely gonna see it coming.

You’ve probably seen supersonic planes in the movies, turning and flipping around at warp speed. A fly’s kind of like that, but with way cooler wings. It can change directions mid-flight, stop, and dodge any obstacles. It can even calculate a flight strategy before it takes off.

Well, this time you’re really going to swat that fly. As you raise your rolled up paper, the insect’s brain calculates where it’s gonna land. The fly immediately puts its body in the perfect position, ready to perform an evasive maneuver. If your hand moves in front of the insect, its legs immediately tilt backwards to help it fly off in the other direction. Wow! That fly would make a great boxer... or soccer goalie.

So why does that fly even bother sticking around, you’re always trying to squash it. Well, because your body is a 5 star feast, and your skin is the buffet table, with row upon row of tasty treats. As you move about your day, your skin releases sweat, proteins, carbs, salt, sugar, and other chemicals that flies are crazy about.

Imagine you’re hungry and thirsty, walking through a desert. You come over a tall sand dune and see it. Free food! Tables of fruit, candies, sandwiches, and the worlds biggest soda fountain. The bouncer looks big, tough... round? It’s a giant, slow turtle! Now you know why the fly sticks around, you’re the turtle!

You actually do have a chance to get that fly. But it’s still going to get away 8 times out of 10. Say a fly’s sitting on your kitchen table. Here’s what you do. You need to aim a few inches in front of where you think it’s gonna fly to. The fly’s brain will think you’re aiming right at it, so you can actually outwit the fly and take it by surprise. The problem? It’s really hard to predict the fly’s escape route.

So, you’re too slow, how about calling in some backup. Meet the tiger beetle, speed, 8 feet per second [(2.5 mps)]. It can’t fly, but that doesn’t even matter. This beetle runs so fast that it loses the ability to see while it’s moving. It aims itself at a target and then runs. It’s not a ninja like the fly, and it can’t change directions mid-sprint. It has to stop before each run.

You walk at around 4.5 feet per second [(1.5 mps)], so the beetle goes like twice your speed. But for its size, it’s incredibly fast. It runs 125 lengths of its body in 1 second. Say you’re 6 feet tall. You’d have to run 750 feet in 1 second! As long as it’s on the same surface as that pesky fly, the fly doesn’t stand a chance.

Or maybe it’s time to call in air support. The dragonfly is the fastest flying insect in the world. This little creature can reach 35 mph [(55 kph)]. That’s faster than you riding your bike...down a steep hill. The dragonfly’s wings allow it to also fly back, right, left, up and down, just like a helicopter. Doesn’t matter how fast the fly moves, it’s pretty much game over.

Flies, dragonflies, and Tiger Beetles are fast because they don’t want to spend a lot of extra time out in the open. There are a lot of hungry creatures around. But there’s one insect that runs fast because if it stopped...ouch.

To meet a speedy Silver Ant you need to go to the Sahara desert. The sand here is so hot, you could fry an egg on it...mmm, sandy. That’s why the silver ant speeds around at 2.5 feet per second [(0.5 mps)]. It doesn’t want to burn its feet! It also has triangle shaped hair that reflects heat, helps the ant escape the scorching sun.

If that ant were human size, it could run at 400 mph [(600 kph)] — faster than the fastest car in the world. There’s another ant that holds a speed record. The Dracula Ant can’t run as fast as the Silver Ant, but it has the fastest mouth in the world. (Um, other than me.) It can open and close its jaws 5,000 times, all in the blink of an eye. Literally.

How about another fast one, this time a bit closer to home, or in it. The American Cockroach can hide in the walls, behind the stove, pretty much anywhere. It’s almost impossible to catch, it can run 5 feet per second [(1.5 mps)].

That’s because of its 6 legs, each one has three knees! Its legs are covered with small hairs that sense any change in the air. That’s why it reacts so fast when you walk into the kitchen and turn the light on. And the world record for fastest creature on land... is the size of a sesame seed. It’s a type of Mite, and it can move at 322 body lengths per second.

If you zapped the mite to turn it human size, it could go almost 2 times faster than the speed of sound! The mite can even change direction while moving. That makes it the fastest, most elusive creature on the planet. But let’s find some animals that actually make us feel good about ourselves. The garden snail. It belongs to the mollusk family and it likes to take its sweet time. If you were moving at snail speed, you’d take 2 steps every 2 hours.

But snails don’t care. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years. Snails use their shell for protection, but they have other tricks too. Some snails give off a nasty smell so no one bothers them. If it gets too hot and dry, snails hide in their shells and seal themselves in using that cool slime they make. That slime also helps them climb up trees!

Sloths are the slowest mammals on the planet. Thanks to their slow metabolism, food can take up to 16 days to get digested! Wouldn’t be that hard to catch up to one of them. But their slowness actually helps them. You know how in the movies they say “Stop! Don’t make any sudden movements!” Well, a sloth has that part down cold. Other animals simply don’t notice them up there among the leaves.

Manatees are one of the slowest sea creatures. But they’re not too worried about anyone messing with them, except for humans in motorboats. They are huge, and they have thick, thick skin. It’s like a sea-tank, but way cuter.

Another slow swimmer is the Greenland shark. It swims at less than 1 mph [0.70 mph (1 kph)]. Like the Manatee, it’s large and in charge. No one’s likely to challenge it face to face. But this all leads to the most hilarious snacking technique ever.

The Greenland shark is basically slower than every single fish in the water. The only chance it has is to wait for some of those fish to fall asleep, then it’s snack time. The cool thing is that their easygoing lifestyle actually prolongs their life.

The average lifespan of a Greenland shark is 300-500 years. They live in the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Imagine, you’re on a cruise and you see one of these slow-motion giants. It might be 400 years older than you!