Have you ever wondered how long an ordinary house fly lives?  Surprisingly, at least to me, is that a house fly lives on average 30 days and even up to 60!

I don’t know about you, but when I find a house fly inside my home I get a little bit cranky.  It is one thing to see flies when you are out on a trail or camping.  Finding one joining you at the dinner table inside your house is quite another thing.  It seems to me that those flies are never around very long in the house and that got me wondering how long they actually live for.

Ordinary House Fly Lifespan

Despite my optimism and hopefulness, those little uninvited house guests have a longer lifespan then I thought.  Scientists estimate that a house fly lives in its adult form for about 30 days.  There are even some that live as long as 60 days!

That is a much longer lifespan than I would have guessed.  I would have thought they had a much shorter lifespan.  They live much longer than a mayfly, which lives for only 1 day!

House Fly Lifecycle

Similar to all insects, a house fly undergoes metamorphosis.  This means that it has several very distinct phases of it’s lifecycle during which it changes it’s form.

It starts life hatching from an egg as a larva.  The larva or larvae are little maggots.  Yes, these baby house flies are literally maggots that crawl around eating all the time and constantly growing larger.  These maggots live for 3 – 5 days  before moving on to the next phase of its life.

Eventually, the larva undergoes a major change and turns into a winged adult.  This winged adult is the insect that we see flying around our house that drives me a bit nutty.  The adult’s goal is to mate and reproduce, thereby completing the lifecycle.