It’s not easy to swat a fly.
Although almost brainless by human standards, recent observations at the University of Washington reveal that flies have “well-developed, rapid-firing sensory motor circuits [useful] in order to register and respond to the visual threat of predators so fast and effectively.” See, Fruit flies show why swatting at flies is often fruitless.
Kate Prengaman, remarking on the academic study, writes that
Much like an airplane, a fly’s body can move in three dimensions: yaw (rotating along a vertical axis to change direction), pitch (tilting the head up or down), and roll (turning the body left or right).
Once the flies detected a threat, they “altered their flight path in a remarkably fast and accurate manner,” the authors found. What’s remarkably fast? Fewer than two wing beats. These flies beat their wings 200 times per second, so that’s less than a hundredth of a second….
In normal flight with no threat detected, the flies tend to turn in the same way an airplane does when it’s using its tail rudder to shift direction while maintaining a constant speed. They manage this by rotating on their yaw axis. But for evasive turns, the flies shift direction fives times as fast. They pitch and roll in a way that would probably make some of the passengers on an airplane reach for their barf bags. The flies rotate their bodies in one direction and then rotate back within just a few wing beats, using torque and counter torque to bank like a fighter jet.
That’s why you can’t swat them. Don’t think brainless bug. Think highly advanced military technology.
Fascinating, yet needless to say, although swatting is ineffective, there are other ways to combat flies. One simply has to find the right method.