March 21, 2025 • 5 mins
House flies seem to be making a comeback after a quiet summer, and Kevin Milne has been wondering why you can never seem to catch the pesky insects.
He did a bit of research, and it turns out their reaction time and flying speed is much more than we can keep up with.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
They'd be It is Kevin Milne's birthday week and he
is with us this morning, Kilder Kevin, how was it, Curer?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I had a very nice week, thank you very much.
One of the highlights actually was on the evening of
my birthday, we had corn beef sandwiches. Did you with
I don't. I can't think of an easy, more attractive
and tasty meal than corn beef sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Really would that be? You know, have you ever played
the death Row dish? You know where they say what
So if you were on death row and you got
to pick your last meal, what meal would you choose?
Would you choose?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah? No, I don't think it'd be the cornbas sandwiches.
I'd be going for some crayfish and black voices probably. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, someone said someone said that you Yeah, I'm really
If it's a death row dish and that's your absolutely meal,
really what you want to choose as an all you
can eat pasta or something, so you just keep going,
just keep on going. Yeah, Well, happy birthday. I'm pleased
to please to hear that you enjoyed it. But Kevin,
you want to talk about something that has been winding
you up a little bit and continues to wind up.
(01:23):
You want to talk about flies this morning?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah. I don't know if it's the same way you are, Jack,
but the common household fly seems to be making a
comeback after a quiet summer. They're everywhere, and I've developed
an interest in flies. How come when they land on
your knee, for example, they're nearly always getting away from
you if you try to squash them. Over a lifetime,
(01:49):
I've enhanced my technique at swatting a fly. I don't
slam the hand down on them the minute they land.
If you're waited about five seconds there torso drops into
a relaxed position between their knees. Have you noticed that, Jack?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, well, it depends on the fly.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But yes, yeah, yeah, we're talking about the common household fly.
But when they're in the relaxed position, you slowly bring
your hand down closer to the fly without screwing it away,
and once you're within twenty centimeters, then you know smack.
You lift your handback up to inspect the damage, and
(02:27):
once again there's nothing there. It drives me nuts, but
I've been reading about the fly, and it's a little
wonder we can't catch them to set off. Their eyesight
and their neural skills react so quickly they see your
hand coming down on them in slow motion at a
quarter of the speed that we see it. Wow, they've
(02:47):
got so much time. They see our hand coming down
towards them, they light up a fag and consider what
way to fly out. They can fly off in any
direction they like and laugh at you from a distance.
Flies can launch themselves off your knee in zero point
seven million seconds.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
That's point not seven seconds. If they're threatened, they can
fly at twenty four kilometers an hour. That's the same
speed that Sam Ruth, a fifteen year old around the
four minute mile on Wednesday night. Now, just like you
and I would never chance of catching Sam, you could
(03:28):
never catch a healthy fly.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The only flies you catch are those that have got
something wrong with them. How does that make you feel, Jack,
that you're slamming your hand down on a fly with
some disability.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's one of those things, isn't it that? I mean,
flies drive me crazy, absolutely crazy, but I begrudgingly can
look at the fly and think that is an incredibly
well adapted species. Like how like if you were if
you were designing a fly from scratch, I'm not sure
you could improve on it, you know, like it is
(04:04):
just so so incredibly well adapt It's like a cockroach
or a rat or what anything else. Right, there's something
about vermin, something about pests that you know, the reason
they endure them, the reason they managed to evade us,
is because actually they are just supremely adapted.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, but price really, I mean, they are one
of God's little creatures, as they say. And yeah, I
mean if you try to sit down and make one
but very very difficult, you wouldn't do it. And so
to some extent, I have a despite the fact that
I'm always trying to swat them off my knees and
stuff and catch the odd one, I've got quite a
(04:44):
lot of respect for them. I don't like spraying them really. See, yeah,
it seems like that's sort of masculine.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well I'm it's not. I'm not worried by that. My
wife's is the spraying. She's a big sprayer, and I'm
always just like, oh, are we just spraying castinogens around
the house, And of course the can says, oh, it's
safe and stuff. I'm like, I'm not sure that that's
something that kills these things as effectively as that does
is necessarily going to be healthy for us. But I suppose, yeah,
(05:12):
I suppose don't say breeze the breeze is the best thing.
You won't have a breeze coming through, because then they
don't they don't like the breeze. Apparently, so if you
can get a bit of a draft going in the house,
apparently that can be effective. But I don't know anyway,
KEI hopefully, hopefully, is the weather starts to get a
little bit cooler, you're going to have fewer flies at
your place. But I appreciate your time this morning, and
glad that you enjoyed your birthday. Here you go, Muz says,
(05:35):
come on, re smacking a fly, You clap your hands
slightly above them, then they fly up into your hands.
Mary reckons that you've got to go from behind them.
I still reckon, Mary that with their kind of field
of vision, that most flies are going to be able
to evade you. But thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks. He'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
They'd be It is Kevin Milne's birthday week and he
is with us this morning, Kilder Kevin, how was it, Curer?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I had a very nice week, thank you very much.
One of the highlights actually was on the evening of
my birthday, we had corn beef sandwiches. Did you with
I don't. I can't think of an easy, more attractive
and tasty meal than corn beef sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Really would that be? You know, have you ever played
the death Row dish? You know where they say what
So if you were on death row and you got
to pick your last meal, what meal would you choose?
Would you choose?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah? No, I don't think it'd be the cornbas sandwiches.
I'd be going for some crayfish and black voices probably. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, someone said someone said that you Yeah, I'm really
If it's a death row dish and that's your absolutely meal,
really what you want to choose as an all you
can eat pasta or something, so you just keep going,
just keep on going. Yeah, Well, happy birthday. I'm pleased
to please to hear that you enjoyed it. But Kevin,
you want to talk about something that has been winding
you up a little bit and continues to wind up.
(01:23):
You want to talk about flies this morning?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah. I don't know if it's the same way you are, Jack,
but the common household fly seems to be making a
comeback after a quiet summer. They're everywhere, and I've developed
an interest in flies. How come when they land on
your knee, for example, they're nearly always getting away from
you if you try to squash them. Over a lifetime,
(01:49):
I've enhanced my technique at swatting a fly. I don't
slam the hand down on them the minute they land.
If you're waited about five seconds there torso drops into
a relaxed position between their knees. Have you noticed that, Jack?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, well, it depends on the fly.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But yes, yeah, yeah, we're talking about the common household fly.
But when they're in the relaxed position, you slowly bring
your hand down closer to the fly without screwing it away,
and once you're within twenty centimeters, then you know smack.
You lift your handback up to inspect the damage, and
(02:27):
once again there's nothing there. It drives me nuts, but
I've been reading about the fly, and it's a little
wonder we can't catch them to set off. Their eyesight
and their neural skills react so quickly they see your
hand coming down on them in slow motion at a
quarter of the speed that we see it. Wow, they've
(02:47):
got so much time. They see our hand coming down
towards them, they light up a fag and consider what
way to fly out. They can fly off in any
direction they like and laugh at you from a distance.
Flies can launch themselves off your knee in zero point
seven million seconds.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
That's point not seven seconds. If they're threatened, they can
fly at twenty four kilometers an hour. That's the same
speed that Sam Ruth, a fifteen year old around the
four minute mile on Wednesday night. Now, just like you
and I would never chance of catching Sam, you could
(03:28):
never catch a healthy fly.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The only flies you catch are those that have got
something wrong with them. How does that make you feel, Jack,
that you're slamming your hand down on a fly with
some disability.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's one of those things, isn't it that? I mean,
flies drive me crazy, absolutely crazy, but I begrudgingly can
look at the fly and think that is an incredibly
well adapted species. Like how like if you were if
you were designing a fly from scratch, I'm not sure
you could improve on it, you know, like it is
(04:04):
just so so incredibly well adapt It's like a cockroach
or a rat or what anything else. Right, there's something
about vermin, something about pests that you know, the reason
they endure them, the reason they managed to evade us,
is because actually they are just supremely adapted.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, but price really, I mean, they are one
of God's little creatures, as they say. And yeah, I
mean if you try to sit down and make one
but very very difficult, you wouldn't do it. And so
to some extent, I have a despite the fact that
I'm always trying to swat them off my knees and
stuff and catch the odd one, I've got quite a
(04:44):
lot of respect for them. I don't like spraying them really. See, yeah,
it seems like that's sort of masculine.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well I'm it's not. I'm not worried by that. My
wife's is the spraying. She's a big sprayer, and I'm
always just like, oh, are we just spraying castinogens around
the house, And of course the can says, oh, it's
safe and stuff. I'm like, I'm not sure that that's
something that kills these things as effectively as that does
is necessarily going to be healthy for us. But I suppose, yeah,
(05:12):
I suppose don't say breeze the breeze is the best thing.
You won't have a breeze coming through, because then they
don't they don't like the breeze. Apparently, so if you
can get a bit of a draft going in the house,
apparently that can be effective. But I don't know anyway,
KEI hopefully, hopefully, is the weather starts to get a
little bit cooler, you're going to have fewer flies at
your place. But I appreciate your time this morning, and
glad that you enjoyed your birthday. Here you go, Muz says,
(05:35):
come on, re smacking a fly, You clap your hands
slightly above them, then they fly up into your hands.
Mary reckons that you've got to go from behind them.
I still reckon, Mary that with their kind of field
of vision, that most flies are going to be able
to evade you. But thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks. He'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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