That reminds me….

MHM_1111130093516.jpeg

The answer Dear Science supplied to the question: Where do fruit flies come from?

Science has something to tell you, something you might find a bit disturbing. The flies [are] in the fruit from the start. Somewhere far awayโ€”perhaps Florida, Texas, the Central Valley of California, a dense plantation in South America, or a farm in Chinaโ€”a female fruit fly placed a fertilized egg beneath the skin of the piece of fruit sitting in your kitchen, perhaps in your hand right now. In the long journey to your kitchen, the eggs hatched in the fruit. After your miserable workweekโ€”with the fruit languishing in a basket, uneatenโ€”the larvae had a chance to mature enough to become flies, fuck like mad in your kitchen, and continue their glorious life cycle.

Why does God always have to ruin the best things in life? Why did He make a fly that puts its disgusting eggs in our delicious fruits? Why didn’t He just not make such a fly? What was He thinking?

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

13 replies on “The Science of Fruit Flies”

  1. Meanwhile, the fruit fly Charles is asking why God had to make disgusting things in life like humans who come and destroy their nurseries and homes.

  2. If you really want to gripe about bugs putting disgusting things just under the surface of the skin of different things, fruit flies are really the bottom of the list. Search “worms under skin” or “bugs under skin” on YouTube to get your priorities straight. Just don’t do it on a full stomach.

  3. Just think of it as free low fat protein. They’re also high in iron, I understand.

    @3 – RadioLab did a show on parasites. I cringed the whole way through.

  4. Given the advances in genetics made possible by Drosophila, you should be thanking God for allowing them to come into existence! The Lord works in mysterious ways…

Comments are closed.