Category: Question

Why do flies rub their hands?

Often, when a fly lands on one of your walls, you’ll probably want to shoo it out or squash it (humans are cruel). So you might look closely at it to get a good aim. And then you just watch as the fly seems to rub its hands in a scheming manner. As if they were a comic-book villain. Why?

The short answer is: Flies are self-groomers.

I know that seems quite contradictory to the stereotypic fly: filthy, disgusting and always with poo. However, nearly all flies groom themselves by rubbing their front limbs (hands) together quickly. They rub them to clean themselves. This sounds like the opposite of those dirty insects with a lust for filth, but flies actually spend most of their time grooming. Being clean is important for just about everything a fly does.

So, next time you see a fly, watch it closely. Flies don’t just rub their hands together; they also rub their hands against their heads, wings and even rub their hind legs together. Cleaning rituals are thorough and exhaustive for flies. Other bugs follow similar rituals, though antennae, which flies don’t have, appear to be the top priority for some insects.

Question asked by Anaïs

If our fingers have fingertips but our toes don’t have “toe-tips”, then how do we still ‘tip toe’?

To ‘tip toe’ is purely an expression and is not literal. You can’t literally tip toe, to walk on the tips of your toes. You can walk on the balls of your feet but not on the tips.

Ballet dancers walk on the knuckles of their toes, which often causes great personal harm to them, but not on their tips.

So, in conclusion, because to ‘Tip toe’ is only an expression, we can ‘tip toe’ even without toe tips. To ‘tip toe’ is just to walk quietly, not to literally walk on the tips of your toes.

Question asked by Kyah