Monsters in Our Back Yards by Mrs. I. H. E.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1916

Monsters in Our Back Yards

By Mrs. I. H. E.

THIS was the title of a lecture on that relentless and almost resistless enemy of the homes of the world,—the Musca domestica. No habitable part of the earth is free from the menace of this monster (for under the microscope or on the screen the house fly clearly shows his true character); and in spite of the often-repeated assertion that he prefers filth and eschews cleanliness, the tormented housewife would be quick to affirm the contrary. To her it seems that he always chooses the freshly washed window, the shining dish, the snowy garment, the choicest food, for his activities.

Nevertheless it is in filth that the fly breeds, and it is from filth, and with filth clinging to his legs and wings, that he comes into our homes, often with deadly results, and always as a menace to the health and safety of the whole family.

The baby, the helpless member of the household, is the special victim of the fly as he crawls over the face and lips of the sleeping child, lights on the nipple of the nursing-bottle, falls into the milk, or nibbles daintily at the bread or cereal. A fly infected with dysentery or typhoid fever may cause either of these diseases, by simply coming in contact with the lips of susceptible persons. “Summer diarrhea,” as well as cholera and plague where these diseases are found, are known to be transmitted through food that has been infected by flies, either in its raw state or after being cooked.

A fruit stand in a Chinese city, displaying pink slices of luscious watermelon, is as thickly covered with flies as any similar display in New York’s lower East Side. But where typhoid takes its toll in the American city, cholera follows more swiftly and with more deadly results in the Oriental town. The natives blame the fruit for the scourge—very much as, a few years ago, we wrote poems about the marvels of the fly, and blamed the summer fruits for many of the summer diseases.

An Innumerable Multitude

We are reminded of the comparisons used to show the number of the enemies that came against ancient Israel, when we study the possible progeny of one female fly in a single year. An official of the health department of the city of Washington, D. C., Dr. A. L. Murray, recently prepared a chart showing that from one female fly in a single season more than 8,200,000,000 flies may come. A study of his chart shows that the estimate is very conservative, and is convincing on the point that the time to begin to fight the fly is not after it has entered the house, but in its breeding places. The stable, the open vault, and the garbage can must be guarded with vigilance, and all open drains, cesspools, etc., eliminated.

Effective Weapons of Resistance

Since stable manure is found to be a favorite breeding place of the house fly, the Department of Agriculture has given considerable study to the problem of destroying the fly in the larval stage, and at the same time not lessening the fertilizing value of the manure. A recent bulletin from the department recommends the following remedy:—

“Powdered hellebore mixed with water and sprinkled over the manure will destroy the larvae which are hatched from the eggs. Since powdered hellebore is readily obtainable, this puts in the hands of every one a remedy for one of the pests that has been found dangerous as well as troublesome. Powdered hellebore, however, will not kill adult flies, which must be swatted or trapped. One half pound of powdered hellebore mixed with ten gallons of water is sufficient to kill the larvae in eight bushels, or ten cubic feet, of manure. The mixture should be sprinkled carefully over the pile, special attention being paid to the outer edges. In most places hellebore is obtainable in one-hundred-pound lots at a cost of eleven cents a pound. This makes the cost of the treatment a little less than seven tenths of a cent per bushel of manure.”

The open vault or dry closet should be treated continuously during the summer with lime, crude creolin, or crude carbolic acid, and should be carefully cleaned at frequent intervals, and the contents buried.

The eggs of the fly will hatch in about twenty-four hours; and the garbage can, kept often in the kitchen itself or just outside the door, is a favorite breeding place. Constant vigilance is the price of safety here. The can must be emptied and cleaned every day. Where the garbage is not fed to stock by the collector (as it sometimes is), kerosene poured over the contents will kill the larvae, or the hellebore or carbolic acid solution may be used; but where this is impossible, the can should be frequently scalded, and often inverted over a low open flame.

When, in spite of all precautions, the enemy gets past the screens and into the house, do not make a household pet of him. Remember the danger of one fly, and consider him “a menace to public health, which cannot be tolerated in the face of a demonstrated remedy.” Sticky fly paper and flytraps may be used; the fly swatter is an effective weapon against the isolated offender; and fly poison, made by dissolving one dram of bichromate of potash in two ounces of water, and adding a little sugar to the solution, may also be used. Where a room “is full of flies,” it is well to close the doors and windows, and burn pyrethrum powder (Persian insect powder). This will deaden the flies for a time, and they will fall to the floor, where they may be swept up and burned. MRS. I. H. E.