Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 January 19

= January 19 =

Loud flies in walls
I can hear flies in my walls. They are so loud that I can hear them from several metres away. For a couple of days I thought they were between the spaces between the windows and curtains but after an almost endless amount of times I have looked behind the curtains and found nothing, I am certain that the flies are inside the walls. What could they be to be this loud? How could they even get in the walls? —Panamitsu (talk) 03:11, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * If you were in Australia, I would guess that you had an infestation of European wasps. HiLo48 (talk) 03:15, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Depends on the wall structure. If there are hollow areas inside then organisms will find their way inside them and thrive. Life seeks to live. I used to live at an old townhouse and we once had an infestation of Hylotrupes... scared us all to hell but we called a specialist who took care of them. --Ouro (blah blah) 06:30, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Both species referred to as "European wasps", German wasps and common wasps, have been introduced to New Zealand as well. A significant portion of German wasp nests are found in artificial structures. You should see them flying about on the outside. --Lambiam 06:51, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * It must be wasps. I've found a hole in the wall which is where I'm guessing they came in from. One interesting thing I've learnt though is that wasps — or whatever insect these may be — appear to sleep at night, as I never hear any buzzing at night. —Panamitsu (talk) 10:20, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * They're cold-blooded. Their whole metabolism slows down into a stupor as they get cold, and speeds up as they heat up.  They don't "sleep" like you or I. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:26, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Sources? Googling do bees sleep finds a number of web pages that suggest that bees do indeed sleep.  As nighttime does not necessarily equate to cold, this should be easy enough to test - just keep bees in a warm place at night and see what happens.  Bees do hibernate for sure, but that is separate from sleeping at night. 85.76.100.252 (talk) 14:29, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Carpenter bees make holes in houses, live in the walls, buzz during the day, and sleep at night. Other than simply seeing them fly around, they are also identified by their scraping and crunnching sounds. Further, honey bees will enlarge a hole if they find one and get into walls to make a nest. They buzz and hum and the wall get very warm because they put off a lot of heat. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 15:44, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * A scientific study . 2A00:23C7:9C86:4301:1893:FCCC:8E9B:6198 (talk) 16:13, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * While a considered reply, this is not an experimental or observational study, which is usually understood by "scientific study". The issue discussed is how one might define the notion of "sleep" as applied to insects. The answer to the question whether bees sleep depends on one's definition. --Lambiam 22:21, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The statement was also qualifed as "like you or I". Given the massive anatomical and physiological differences between bees and humans, I have no problem with the statement that bees don't sleep like you or I, regardless of whether they canbe said to sleep at all. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 22:31, 19 January 2024 (UTC)


 * If you're hearing noises in the walls, it would be prudent to bring in an exterminator and figure it out before they overrun your place. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baseball Bugs (talk • contribs) 01:07, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
 * So in other words, get rid of his place wall bugs :) --Viennese Waltz 08:23, 21 January 2024 (UTC)
 * At any rate, don't approach the problem like Gene Hackman at the end of The Conversation. MinorProphet (talk) 13:19, 23 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Or Delapore in The Rats in the Walls Iapetus (talk) 14:04, 23 January 2024 (UTC)