Flies might seem like a small problem, but they can lead to big issues around your home. Learning about the fly life cycle helps you understand how fast they grow and why they keep coming back.
Read on to learn what attracts flies, how they reproduce, and how our pest experts can help with fly control.
If you were to ask the average person how long they think a fly lives, more likely than not, they will tell you they only live about 24 hours. This is a common misconception: it's not true of most flies that people have to deal with around their home. House flies and other larger flies that usually infest a house can live for days, maybe even months. Mayflies, however, usually only have a 24-hour lifespan.
Flies can contaminate food and cause other problems. Rather than trying to wait out a fly's lifespan, it's better to get rid of flies using the professional treatments offered by our Ehrlich fly technicians. Contact your local Ehrlich Pest Control office today and schedule a free property inspection.
From egg to adult fly, the life cycle of a fly moves fast. In the right conditions, the full process can take less than a week. Each stage – egg, larva, pupa, and adult – plays a key role in how flies grow and spread. Understanding each stage can help you spot the signs of a fly infestation early and act before it gets worse.
A female fly starts the cycle by finding a place with plenty of organic material. This could be rotting food, garbage, or animal waste. These spots give the future larvae something to feed on once they hatch. A single fly can lay over 150 eggs at once, and the egg stage doesn’t last long, just a few hours in the right environmental conditions.
Once the eggs hatch, out come the larvae, better known as maggots. These small, white, legless worms feed on the decaying material around them. During this larval stage, they molt as they grow, molting their exoskeleton multiple times. This stage usually lasts a few days but can be shorter or longer depending on temperature and food supply.
Next comes the pupal stage, where the fly transforms. The maggots become more compact and darker in color, turning red, brown, or black. Inside this protective shell—called a puparium—the fly changes shape. This process is called metamorphosis, and it’s where legs, wings, and body parts begin to form.
Once the transformation is complete, the new adult fly breaks out of the puparium. It takes a short time to dry and strengthen its wings. Then it starts looking for a food source and a mate to start the cycle again. Flies can reproduce quickly, and in the right conditions, a full fly life cycle can be completed in just a few days.
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Flies are drawn to decaying and moist environments. That includes organic matter like food scraps, trash, animal waste, and clogged drains. These areas not only provide the ideal spot for laying eggs, but also offer a strong food source for the larvae once they emerge.
Female flies can start to reproduce just a few days after entering the adult stage, laying hundreds of eggs during their lifetime. Flies may burrow into cracks, gaps, or drains to lay their eggs, making it tough to spot the problem until you’re facing a full infestation.
Knowing how a fly develops from egg to adult is key to dealing with an infestation. Killing one adult fly won’t stop more from hatching, mating, and spreading. Every stage – egg, maggot, pupa, and adult – has to be addressed to manage a fly infestation properly.
DIY methods might offer short-term relief, but they rarely reach hidden breeding areas. For long-term results, it’s better to call in our pest experts, who know how to identify different fly species and apply targeted pest control services to break the cycle.
The fact that a house fly can live a lot longer than 24 hours means you might have to deal with a fly infestation for an extended period of time. Flies can contaminate both food and food preparation surfaces. Trying to deal with a fly infestation on your own could lead to more flies and more potential health risks.
Ehrlich technicians know how to find where the flies are coming from. Flies could be entering your property from the drains or inside the walls. There also might be gaps within your siding, roof, or holes in the exterior of your home that allow flies to get inside.
Our fly control technicians will do a full property inspection and find all probable locations where flies are laying their eggs. We will then initiate a treatment plan to help get rid of flies around your home and property and offer solutions that will keep flies away for good.
On average, a house fly can live around 20-25 days. Sometimes they can live up to a month. House flies lay eggs in something particularly nasty, before becoming maggots, then develop into pupa, and then adult flies. If enough of the eggs survive, you end up with a house filled with a lot of flies.
Flies can usually live for about two to three days without food. Their survival depends on environmental conditions, their health, and how much energy they’ve stored. They can go a short time without eating, but after a few days, their chances of survival drop if they don’t find a suitable food source.
Flies lay eggs in moist, decaying spots like garbage bins, drains, or leftover food. These areas give the larvae something to feed on once they hatch.
No. While most flies follow a four-stage life cycle, the length and conditions vary between fly species.
Flies are attracted to organic matter, especially food waste and damp areas. These environments trigger female flies to lay eggs and begin the reproductive process.
Cleaning up rotting food and sealing trash can help reduce larvae. DIY methods may help in the short term, but often don’t target the infestation at the source or destroy all stages of the fly life cycle. To effectively get rid of fly larvae, it’s best to call our pest experts who can provide long-term treatment options.
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