A Victorian entomologist has warned consecutive mild winters fuelled by climate change could be protecting fly larvae and significantly boost their numbers.
Flies are rarely a welcome guest at a family barbecue, sports ground, or outdoor event, but this spring has seen Victorians take to social media irritated over their abundance.
"When spring comes there's a sudden abundance of an outbreak. We had a relatively mild winter so a lot of those non-feeding stages would have survived. "Typically we'll get these every couple of years, where we get an explosion when both the food source and the winds combine."There is often an abundance of flies in spring after they go through the egg, larvae, and pupae stages in winter.Senior curator at the Museum of Victoria Dr Richard Marchant said warmer winters could affect insect populations, but there was very limited data on numbers in Australia.
" nobody could give you a clear answer on that in Australia because there's no long-term monitoring. There wouldn't be a single insect of any description in this country for which there's any long-term data." "These are small animals, they can breed very quickly when conditions are good and conditions are right. That doesn't mean just temperature but the amount of food that's available and other conditions that they need," he said.
Climate Change Entomology Weather Pests Bugs Insects Why So Many Flies Where Do Flies Come From
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