What has four wheels and flies?

How to think about it

1. Four wheels suggests a car, truck or wagon. None of them can fly through the air.
2. Reread “flies”. Besides the verb, flies are small buzzing insects.
3. Which four-wheeled vehicle is always surrounded by insects, especially on a hot summer morning?
4. A garbage truck has four wheels and plenty of flies.

Why “a garbage truck” is the answer

A garbage truck rolls on wheels and attracts flies because of what it carries, so it “has four wheels and flies” in the insect sense. The riddle counts on you hearing “flies” as a verb and picturing a flying car. The hint about insects gives the trick away, and the groan afterward is the point.

Common wrong answers

• An airplane. Airplanes fly, but most have three sets of wheels, and the riddle wants the insect pun.
• A flying car. Flying cars are science fiction; garbage trucks are on every street.