Odd subject

With controlling my flutter HR, I tend to sit in the couch to keep my hr low just killing time (Pun!) until my ablation next week. Flies are brazen enough to have dozens at a time land on me. It’s something out of a Hitchcock movie. Not helping my HR I can tell you now. So with nothing better to do, I googled. Hey, it’s 5am and I haven’t slept all night. If you want a dose of odd news...it’s heart attack and hr related. Better entertainment than “the odd news” YouTube posts I’ve seen here.

[www.quora.com]

How do flies sense that somebody is about to die? How many hours before death do they start to gather around a dying person?

Now, back to those psychic flies.

Some species of flies appear to swarm to the corpse even before it becomes a corpse. These fly species seem to know the death before the victim does. This is not practically useful to over 99% of people becasue they don't generally identify fly species every time one flies past and thus advertising it is not of great use. However, the method of detection is.

It has been found that flies are not the only animals that can detect oncoming death. It has been found that dogs and cats can often identify oncoming heart attacks and other fatal problems before their owner. So, how do they do it?

Well, there are several good theories on this issue based upon what happens before you die:

Smell
When our body undergoes stress it can often release hormones and enzymes or trigger the immune system to react. This can alter our smell. Sensitive olfactory systems such as those of dogs and flies can easily detect this change. This is the most likely cause of their “psychic ability”.
Temperature
A small abnormal change in body temperature can alert some animals, although this is unlikely to be the case for flies as they do not tend to solely feast on humans and other animals have different temperatures.
Heart rate
Dogs are known to react to changes in their owner’s heart rate, especially if familiar with the person. A fly is unlikely to notice this for the same reason as that for temperature.
Ion flow
This is not likely to matter unless it affects the smell. However, muscles change the presence of certain ions in the body and those muscles contracting and releasing in certain ways will produce an imbalance. An animal with electro-receptors can sense this.
The change of smell is the most likely cause, but this smell will appear at different times before death depending on the cause of death. A change in a person’s smell could occur days earlier in the case of a disease, but only minutes earlier in the case of a heart attack. Either way, the fly finds a target to feed its offspring and raises a new brood of lovely darlings.

Back to swatting those flies...

Ewwwwww.
Buzzards, vultures, California condors and now flies.

I'm filing this under stuff that I really didn't wanna know but now I know and will probably remember for a long time! LOL

There were some times in the 2 or 3 months before my dad passed (in 1995) that he had a smell that my mother called "the smell of death." Knowing what I know today, it could have been ketoacidosis (I would describe it as a sickly, sweet smell), at the time, I had no clue..

George- Well hopefully these flies just like me and it’s nothing else. :-) I’m off multaq for pre ablation and killing them is a great distraction than noticing my hr increase. However they are only attracted to landing on me or on top of the fly-swatter just taunting me. Reminds me of the Hitchcock movie Birds. At two in the morning my husband heard the racket and thought I was hammering for a couple of hours. But instead I was smashing those little suckers.


It’s an excellent form of stress relief and stimulates endorphin production

“Physical activity is a known stress reducer; runners experience the phenomenon of a ‘runner’s high’, and boxing is no different. When working out on the punching bag, your brain increases the production of endorphins, the neurotransmitters that create feel-good thoughts. Punching helps to relieve muscle tension that can collect when you experience stress. As you continue to punch, you will find your focus is improved, increasing your concentration and helping you forget the reasons why you are stressed.”



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2020 10:22PM by susan.d.

Quote
susan.d
But instead I was smashing those little suckers.

Reminds me of an 8 day Scout canoe trip I led 20 years ago on the Churchill River System in northern Saskatchewan. This was in July and the mosquitos were thick. After getting into our tents for the night, we'd spend 30 minutes killing the ones that came in with us. Little blood spots all over the tent. They would also congregate at the top of the rain fly, outsize the tent and buzz. Our last night out, one of the adult leaders had to leave his tent to relieve himself about 4AM. Then you'd hear him come back in and he and his tent mate killing the bugs for another 30 minutes...