A fly’s mouth is designed to pierce and suck up liquids (your blood). Flies sense where your are by breath moisture, dark colors, movement, warmth, perspiration and certain substances, i.e. carbon dioxide.
Once you’re located and bit, a biting fly injects its anticoagulant saliva into your skin in order to keep that blood flowing. But this injection may also be accompanied by stuff that causes you an infectious disease. Infected fly bites have the potential to transmit:
- tularemia ~ deer fly
- leishmaniasis ~ sand fly
- river blindness ~ black fly
- sleeping sickness ~ tsetse fly
And although most cases of Lyme disease is transmitted by tick, on a very rare occasion it’s thought to be transmitted by biting flies.
Flies can also carry infectious diseases by transporting infection causing agents, i.e. bacteria, on their feet or in their mouth after they feed on something that’s infected. Flies are believed to be responsible for spreading diseases such as:
- cholera
- typhoid
- trachoma
- salmonellosis
- strep infection
- staph infection
Cutaneous myiasis is an infection that is caused by skin infestation of fly larvae. It’s spread to your skin by some type of blood sucking insect. And it doesn’t have be a fly making the deposit.
In addition, a fly’s saliva can trigger an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis.
