Can You Drink Alcohol With Flies in It?
WouterYou may not realize it, but flies actually need alcohol. They need it to protect themselves from parasitic wasps that would otherwise eat them alive. When a fruit fly ingests alcohol, it can kill the parasites inside its body, preventing them from reproducing. These parasites can also eat the larvae that the fruit fly has laid in its body.
Fruit flies are particularly adapted to cope with high alcohol concentrations. They can tolerate up to 4 percent alcohol content. Higher levels are toxic to fruit flies because they can’t break down the alcohol fast enough. It would take them four times as long to digest the alcohol to reach a human blood alcohol level, which makes them unfit for driving.
This idea was not a popular one among fruit fly scientists, but it was still considered scientifically plausible. Students tested a variety of fruit fly species and observed which ones were more susceptible to alcohol. Then, they studied the tolerance levels of non-specialist fruit fly wasps and specialists. They concluded that the non-specialist species would be less tolerant to alcohol.
Alcohol and fruit flies have very similar chemical reactions. The smell of alcohol attracts fruit flies, and their bodies are conditioned to prefer it to non-alcoholic foods. In fact, even when a fruit fly is exposed to a poison, such as quinine or an electric shock, it still prefers alcohol to the non-alcoholic foods. This is because alcohol is bitter and also causes the insect to lose coordination and sedation.
