Facts, identification & control

Latin name: Phaenicia or Lucilia sericata

Overview

Green bottle flies belong to genus Lucilia of family Calliphoridae. They are big flies which commonly have mentallic, blue – green in color and distribute in rural areas.

Activities, food and habits

These flies emit annoying buzzing in flight and eat rotting meat. They usually appear near decaying meat or organic materials. They are carriers of many dangerous diseases and listed to pests. Green bottle flies are typically found in nature. If there are large number of green bottle flies in your home, there are capable of breeding in your home. In order to eliminate green bottle flies, an important step is cleaning thoroughly in wastes areas.

Reproduction

Their life cycle last from 9 – 21 days. A female green bottle fly can produce more 2.000 eggs in her life cycle. Their eggs are light yellow or grey in color. After 2 – 3 weeks, larvae appear and measure about 9 -22 mm in length depending on temperature. Within 2 – 10 days, larvae will find suitable position to turn into pupae and adult green bottle flies. They usually breed in organic and moist materials like animal carcasses.

Green bottle flies are professional pollinators. They usually pollinate these flowers with strong fragrance such as papaya or daisy. When food resources are shortage, green bottle flies absorb nutrition from nectar to produce healthy eggs.

Signs of green bottle fly infestations

The common signs of green bottle fly are adults and larvae. The adult green bottle flies usually rest on flat surface or fly surrounding areas emitting smell of food. We can easily observe when they emerge from breeding sites to become pupae.