What Are Flies Doing When They Rub Their Hands?

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Spilling the secret about these common household pests

Co-authored by Elmer Bensinger and Hannah Madden

Last Updated: June 21, 2025 Fact Checked

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Why Flies Rub Their Limbs Together

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How Flies Carry Disease

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Flies Throwing Up

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Managing Flies

Have you ever wondered why flies stop to rub their tiny hands together? While this gesture may look villainous, these pesky pests actually have a good reason for it. Want to learn more about flies and their behavior? Keep reading for fun info as well as tips on managing flies around your home.

Things You Should Know

Flies rub their hands to clean off their taste receptors. These receptors are all over their bodies, including their legs and wings.
Flies spread disease by landing on feces or trash, picking up bacteria, and then flying around with it.
To manage flies, throw away garbage outside in a sealed container and keep the inside of your home clean.

Section 1 of 4:

Why Flies Rub Their Limbs Together

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Flies rub their hands together to clean themselves off. We often think of flies as gross, dirty pests, so it may come as a surprise to learn that they’re actually cleaning themselves. Flies have small sensors all over their bodies that carry taste receptors. When flies walk around, these sensors can get clogged with dirt, dust, and food particles. So when a fly rubs its little hands together, it’s getting ready to taste its next delicious meal.^{[1]
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- These receptors are on the outside of a fly's body to tell whether food is good before they eat it. Imagine holding your hand up to a hamburger and tasting it before you put it in your mouth—that’s exactly what flies are doing!
- Flies have taste receptors all over their bodies, including on their wings and legs.

Section 2 of 4:

How Flies Carry Disease

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Flies often land on feces and then track bacteria elsewhere. If flies are constantly cleaning themselves, you might be wondering how they manage to spread diseases to animals and humans. Unfortunately, a fly’s favorite meal is feces. When they land on their food to eat, they often pick up bacteria that they then spread to other areas when they land again.^{[2]
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- Depending on the area, flies can carry diseases like cholera, salmonella, tuberculosis, typhoid, and more.
- That’s why it’s always important to get rid of flies and not eat any food that a fly has landed on.

Section 3 of 4:

Do flies throw up when they land on food?

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Yes, flies spit saliva onto food to digest it. It’s not necessarily “throwing up” as we might vomit, but it is a type of saliva that helps dissolve the food a fly lands on. Since flies don’t have teeth, they use their mouths to suck up the saliva and bits of dissolved food so they can eat it properly.^{[3]
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- Most of the time, flies don’t suck up all of their saliva-and-dissolved-food combo, leaving bits of it behind wherever they go.

Section 4 of 4:

Managing Flies

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Empty your trash regularly. It’s no surprise that flies love eating garbage. If you notice flies in your home, get rid of them by taking out the trash and putting it into a sealed dumpster outside. Wipe down countertops, sweep up floors, and clean out sinks to make sure there are no food scraps left behind.^{[4]
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- House flies tend to congregate around rotted food, but other flies, like fruit flies, like fresh food. Keep fruit flies away by sealing up food in airtight containers.^{[5]
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  Elmer Bensinger
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Install screens on doors and windows. Sometimes, flies just wander inside your home by accident. If you love keeping the doors and windows open during the summer, install screens so that bugs and pests can’t get in.^{[6]
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- Check out other areas of your home that might be letting flies in. Surprisingly, experts note that most flies get in through the attic.^{[7]
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Clean up animal waste outside. Besides food and trash, flies are also attracted to animal poop outside. If your animal does their business outside your home, pick up their feces and throw it into a sealed trash bag.^{[8]
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Elmer Bensinger
Pest Control Specialist

Expert Interview} That way, the flies won’t have any reason to visit.^{[9]
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- Plus, picking up animal waste is a great way to keep your yard and grass looking great.
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Use fly traps to attract and kill flies. If your fly problem just won’t buzz off, use sticky traps or light traps to solve it. Hang these traps up outside your home where flies tend to congregate, like underneath a covered patio. Clean the traps regularly as dead flies accumulate.^{[10]
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- Many flies hibernate over the winter, so you’ll probably see more flies in and around your home during the warmer months.