[Bob1942 (OP)]

Has anyone ever managed to train a species of fly?

[chris]

Hi Bob,

Yes, absolutely, people have been training flies, for years in fact.

Bizarre as it sounds, tiny fruit flies (drosophila) can be trained in various ways - for example to navigate through mazes or to avoid specific things.

A recent article about fruit fly memory and brain asymmetry gives a bit more background to it :

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/katarneycolumn9.htm/

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[neilep]

In honour of empirical study, I have caught a fly this morning and I already have it doing roll-overs, saying 'sausages' and fetching grains of rice on command !!...additionaly the flys on my trousers are trained to come down on command too []

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[Bob1942 (OP)]

So which sadist trained midges to bite me when I attempt to do the gardening? I have a solution,no gardening!

[chris]

No, don't stop gardening because otherwise the garden will grow into a wilderness and play host to even hungrier creatures than midges !

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[Donnah]

triffids?