Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

A fly washes its “hands” and face

Watch more with these video collections:

Observe a fly up-close as it washes its “hands,” legs, and face, including its large compound eyes. This macro footage captures some classic fly behavior: Rapid leg-rubbing to clean itself. Via AskAScientist.nz, Canterbury Museum entomologist Simon Pollard writes:

When a fly lands on a piece of food, it `tastes’ the food with its feet. Special sense organs on its feet can tell the fly what type of food it has landed on, and whether it can eat it. It is very important for a fly to keep its feet clean, so it can identify what it has landed on. In the world of flies, tiny particles, like pollen grains, dust – which is mostly bits of dead skin, bits of dead insects etc, can become stuck to the fly’s body, and especially the feet, when the fly is walking around.

Flies, by rubbing their legs together can clean off these tiny particles. Imagine if your feet became covered in oranges and you had to brush them off with your hands. Flies also clean other parts of their bodies, like their eyes, by brushing over them with their legs.

fly face-washing
Next: Maggot to Fly Time Lapse Transformation.

Plus: Why is it so hard to catch a fly? Visit The Robot Zoo.

h/t @BerkeleyScience.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Which is better: Soap or hand sanitizer?

Rion Nakaya

What’s the right way to wash your hands?

Rion Nakaya

Watching a woodlouse flip over

Rion Nakaya

The Very Hungry Maggot: How larva farming can help reduce food waste

Rion Nakaya

The Secret Life of Plankton

Rion Nakaya

The Birth of a Snowflake (A snowflake melts in reverse)

Rion Nakaya

Subvisual Subway, the Art of New York City’s Bacterial World

Rion Nakaya

Proper Handwashing, an animation

Rion Nakaya

Paper Towel vs Hand Dryers – AsapSCIENCE

Rion Nakaya