Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.

My dad always warned me that flies were the scum of the earth and that I should never, I repeat, never allow them to land on my food.

They’ll vomit! They’ll poop! They’ll spread contagious diseases and you will die!

I felt a bit like receiving an abstinence lecture, to be honest.

In a recent survey, Orick asked participants, "if you were at a restaurant, which critter would make you drop your fork? Rodents? Cockroaches? Flies? Ants? Or snakes?"

Snakes! I’d definitely be outta that joint in a heartbeat.

61% of people said they would bounce if they saw cockroaches, but scientists are warning that flies are actually twice as germy as cockroaches.

And they’re specifically referring to those pesky houseflies that can be found anywhere. After all, there are over 90,000 different species of flies.

So, what’s the real deal on flies and food? Flies do gross things like eat garbage and poop and rotting animal carcasses.

All those germs from the gross stuff they think is delicious gets transferred to their legs and small hairs all over their body.

It only takes a second for them to transfer those germs to your food or to your body.

It’s also true that flies can’t chew, so in order to eat, they spit enzymes on their food to dissolve it and then slurp it up.

And yet another solid truth is that flies can carry cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.

But, notice most people don't get those diseases, which brings me to the rational side of things.

Flies that are festering on food can definitely make you sick, so if there’s a bunch of flies feeding on a rotting apple—you probably shouldn’t eat it!

But when they land on food for a few seconds, it’s unlikely that it’ll transfer enough bacteria to make you sick.

It’s also a misconception that they poop every time they land. That would be a lot of tiny fly bowel movements.

They might spit on your food if they’re intending to eat it, but it’s the bacteria that’s stuck to their body that actually spreads disease and makes people sick.

Long story short: fly vomit is your friend, fly bodies? Not so much.

Thanks for watching DNews.

Do you get grossed out if flies land on your food? Let me know down below and we’ll catch you on the next episode—hopefully with a little less feces.