Can Flies Smell?

If feels like they do, after all they gravitate towards food and other smelly items, yet they are so tiny and It doesnt feel right that they should get a sense of smell with those eyes they have.

A few facts from www.flypower.com

"Also, flies don't bite or sting. They have neither teeth nor a stinger. Flies thrust a needle like spike into their victims and injects a digestive juice that breaks down the victims cell tissue. They then suck the liquid in to injest it. Very poor manners to say the least.

But don't think that flies are helpless and otherwise benign to their larger neighbors. In 1923, Black flies in swarms were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 sheep, horses and cattle in Rumania and Bulgaria. Of course I would suppose one would expect this sort of behavior from an area of the world that also brought us the Carpathinan warlord, Dracula.

A few more misc. facts to round things out. Did you know.........

The average house fly lives on average 21 days.
A flies wings beat 200 times per second.
Flies don't grow. They are born full size.
Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
Flies jump up and backwards when taking off.
Average speed of a fly in flight is 4.5 m.p.h..
Flies smell with their antennae "