Cheese Flies
Cheese Skippers
Ham Skippers
The cheese skipper has been recorded in the earliest of literature. It is referred to as the cheese or ham skipper, because in the larval stage, it appears to move by skipping and can hop up to 6 inches in the air. The larvae infests meats and cheeses, where it gets many of its nicknames.
- Fly Species
- cheese flies, cheese skippers, ham skippers, bacon fly, cheese maggots, cheese hoppers.
- Family: Piophilidae
- Genus: Liopiopila
- Species: Piophila casei
- Locations
- Has been recorded throughout the United States including Alaska
- Europe, Australia, India, the West Indies, and Greenland
- Size
- 1/16 - 1/3 inch (4mm - 8mm)
- Identify
- Black with bronze tints on the thorax, reddish brown eyes, with some yellow on the head, antennae, and legs.
- Has slightly iridescent wings which lie flat over the body when the fly is at rest.
- Life Cycle
- The entire life cycle of the cheese skipper varies depending on the breeding source.
- Eggs hatch in approximately 1 day.
- They spend 8-15 days in the larval stage but possibly up to eight months.
- When ready to pupate, the larvae leave the food and migrate to a dark, dry crevice, though they may undergo a pre-pupal stage for 48 hours.
- The pupal stage is completed in 5-12 days.
- Life Span
- 3-4 days during the late spring and summer.
- Breeding
- Breeding sources must be moist.
- They are typicallyfound in meat and cheese facilities,as they prefer over-ripe and moldy cheese, as well beefsteaks and ham having a rotten odor.
- They also have been found in human excrement, rotten fungus, and moist dog hair.
- Congregation
- Facilities that process, package, and store meat and cheese products.
- Rendering plants where livestock is butchered.
- Health Importance
- Because adults breed in filth, they are able to transmit bacterial and viral pathogens
- Many reports of intestinal irritation including nausea, vomiting, pain in the abdomen, and bloody diarrhea are a result of swallowing maggots in cheese.
- In fact, cheese fly larvae are a leading cause of myiasis in humans, and are the most common larvae found in the intestines of man
- How to Kill / Control
- To get rid of cheese flies, ham flies:
- Eliminate breeding grounds
- Sanitation
- View our Fly Control page for extended information on these methods.
- Extra Info
- In Italy, the larvae are intentionally introduced into pecorino cheese to produce casu marzu.
- Forensic entomologists use the larvae of cheese flies collected at the site of murder victims to help identify the time of death - the cheese fly do not take up residence in a corpse until 3-6 months after death.
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