🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

It’s not only bears that hibernate in winter. Cluster flies (Pollenia spp.) do too, seeking warm, dark places, like inside the walls of your home, to sleep away the cold months before reemerging in spring. Also called “attic flies,” they are known disease carriers and are capable of crawling inside the smallest of spaces.

Cluster flies, or Pollenia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830, are a commonly observed genus of true flies (Diptera: Polleniidae), readily distinguished by their dull-coloured bodies with golden setae on the thorax. They are often disregarded beyond their role as house pests, and a quick search of their common name would produce endless results instructing how to rid your home of them.

Several hundred flies may gather in any one cluster, and in early spring, hundreds of flies may die in homes before they are able to find their way back outside.