How Salt Helps Flies Revive

When a fly drowns, its breathing tubes are blocked and it cannot breathe. This allows it to survive for a long time without oxygen. However, the process does not happen immediately. It takes about 5-10 minutes for the fly to revive itself. After that, it will start bustling and vibrating, and eventually it will fly away. The secret of this miraculous technique is the magic of salt. The salt in the water draws water from the body of the fly, which is similar to the process of leaching and cell diffusion.

Flies can be rescued by placing them in a glass of water or a salt pile. The flies will be stunned for some time but will flutter back to life after some time. When you see a dead fly floating on a window sill, you can put it in a glass of water for ten minutes, or wrap it in a napkin with salt and place it on a window sill.

Salt will help revive a stunned fly by helping it breathe again. However, if the fly is frozen, it will not be able to come back to life. Freezing damages most of the body’s biological systems. In addition, no species of houseflies has a coping mechanism against freezing temperatures. When water freezes, it expands and solidifies, which damages cell membranes.