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Spray at it with any liquid (e.g. water, household cleaner). It may take a couple of squirts but it's easy as it doesn't need to be exact. The fly will fall to the ground where you can just squash it with a tissue.
1) Eyes don't work like cameras; there's no real "exposure" phase as such (even though there's lots of thresholds). So it's misleading to talk about discrete images that we sample at some fixed frequency. Instead, it's much more helpful to think of photoreceptors and subsequent processing stages as continuous band-pass filters. At some point, high frequencies are simply cut off because the electro-chemistry of the cell can't keep up. For us, that cut-off comes earlier than it does for invertebrates.
2) There's no mechanical interaction between light and photoreceptor. Instead, the transduction cascade of the dipteran eye seems to encompass a mechanical (as opposed to biochemical) step.
3) It's pure conjecture to talk about a fly's slowed down "perception" of the world. The reason why they take off before you get to them is much simpler -- there's a highly optimized reflex that connects eye and flight muscles via the giant fiber (a particularly rapid nerve). We have similar responses, like eye lid closing etc. Additionally, their photoreceptors are sensitive and fast. But there's zero evidence that flies have any sense of continuous time that could be faster than ours.
Ah, well. The perils of science journalism.
If you want to catch a stationary fly, it's pretty easy to do so with your bare hands. The key thing to know is that they jump backward before taking flight. Aim for a spot about 1-2" behind the fly, and about 1-2" above the fly. Try to catch it there , and your success percentage will be high.
As someone who works in visual neuroscience, this article's a tough read. Lots of statements that are semi-accurate at best. 1) Eyes don't work like cameras; there's no real "exposure" phase as such (even though there's lots of thresholds). So it's misleading to talk about discrete images that we sample at some fixed frequency. Instead, it's much more helpful to think of photoreceptors and subsequent processing stage…
They might not view time faster, but they view and react to events much closer to the present.
Three techniques: 1. Move your open hand towards the fly very slowly until you are 5cm (2 in) away then slap. 2. Move both hands slowly towards the fly and "clap" to catch it. 3. Blow gently downwards onto the fly, then slowly increase the force of the blowing. You might then be able to pin its wing to the surface. Yes, I have a lot of time on my hands.
Also a lot of fly goo.
The article doesn't mention this but as I understand flies can only see motion. So when you move very slow you can catch them. It doesn't mean that they only see moving objects by the way. In flight they see because everything is moving around them.
Where’s the video of the killer fly catching a fruit fly? I want to see that .
And some more references on how compount eyes see mechanically, as opposed to chemically, would be interesting.
As someone who works in visual neuroscience, this article's a tough read. Lots of statements that are semi-accurate at best. 1) Eyes don't work like cameras; there's no real "exposure" phase as such (even though there's lots of thresholds). So it's misleading to talk about discrete images that we sample at some fixed frequency. Instead, it's much more helpful to think of photoreceptors and subsequent processing stage…
A maybe-dumb question about point (3) - I've noticed that when I get a blink/flinch response from something (usually some sand or a bug hitting my face when I'm on the bike), it feels like I blink just a split second before the thing hit me. Given that I'm unlikely to have any kind of precognition, do you think this might be related to the blink reflex being 'hard wired' and so my brain gets the "hey, a thing hit your face" signal after the "hey, your eyes just closed" signal? (Alternately, I read something once about our perception of audio being delayed by ~100ms so that it synchs up with our perception of vision, despite our visual processing being slower than audio - maybe the signal that caused the flinch gets 'buffered'?)
If you want to catch a stationary fly, it's pretty easy to do so with your bare hands. The key thing to know is that they jump backward before taking flight. Aim for a spot about 1-2" behind the fly, and about 1-2" above the fly. Try to catch it there , and your success percentage will be high.