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The Deadly House-Fly

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 34.

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The Deadly House-Fly

The total time required for a single generation — from eggs to adult — is ten days, and in this climate at least twelve or fifteen generations in the course of a summer. As each female lays from five hundred to one thousand eggs in the course of a season, her descendants — should they all live — would run up into figures beyond comprehension of the human mind — many billions of billions!
The favorite nesting place of the fly is in all forms of decaying animal or vegetable matter. After the eggs have hatched into maggots, these feed upon surrounding organic matter, growing rapidly, and finally reach the “resting” or “pupa” stage, from which bursts forth the perfect, full-grown, and fully developed fly.
Instantly upon emerging from the pupa — shell — the fly seeks food, and all things organic are “grist to his mill.” Alighting, perhaps, upon a heap of foul, decaying matter for his first meal, he will feast there for a while, besmearing his mouth parts, legs, and abdomen with thousands of germs, and then fly to the nearest dinner table, spreading these germs with perfect impartiality on sugar, bread, meat, butter, and milk.
Again: in addition to the bacteria left by legs, mouth, and body, he deposits his own intestinal excreta, in the form of a fly-speck, literally teeming with all sorts of contagion.
The number of germs upon the bodies of individual flies has been the subject of continual research by many scientists, and vary greatly. A nice, foppish fly — select in his menu — may carry around with him only two thousand or three thousand bacteria, but the average of four hundred fourteen flies examined by Esten and Mason last year was 1,222,570 a fly — the highest being six million six hundred thousand on one individual.
Milk is an ideal breeding place for all sorts of bacteria, especially if not refrigerated. One fly, covered with typhoid germs, falling into a dairy can of warm milk could develop, by the time the milk is delivered to consumers — say six hours — sufficient typhoid germs to infect one hundred families. Such cases are of record.
The following recommendations are culled from bulletins of the Chicago board of health, and are respectfully submitted: —
“Don’t allow flies in your house.
“Don’t permit them near your food, especially milk.
“Flies are the most dangerous insects known to man. Flies are the filthiest of all vermin. They are hatched in filth, live in filth, and carry filth along with them. Flies are known to be carriers of death-dealing disease germs. They leave some of these germs wherever they alight.
“Screen your windows and doors. Do it early, before fly time, and keep screens up until snow falls. Screen the baby’s bed and keep flies away from the baby’s bottle, the baby’s food, and the baby’s ‘comforter.’ Keep flies away from the sick, especially those ill with typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Screen the patient’s bed. Kill every fly that enters the sick-room. Immediately disinfect and dispose of all the discharges.
“Use liquid poisons, sticky fly-paper, and traps.
“Place either of these fly-poisons in shallow dishes throughout the house: —
“(a) Two teaspoonfuls of formaldehyde to a pint of water.
“(b) One dram of bichromate of potash dissolved in two ounces of water sweetened with plenty of sugar.
“To quickly clear rooms of flies, burn pyrethrum powder or blow powdered black flag into the air of the room with a powder blower. This causes the flies to fall to the floor in a stunned condition. They must be gathered up and destroyed.
“Sprinkle chlorid of lime or kerosene over contents of privy vaults or garbage boxes. Keep garbage receptacles tightly covered, and clean them every day.
“Sprinkle chlorid of lime over manure piles and other refuse. Keep manure screened if possible. It should be removed at least once a week.
“Pour kerosene into the drains.
“Clean cuspidors every day. Keep a five-per-cent solution of carbolic acid in them. Don’t allow dirt to accumulate in corners, behind doors, back of radiators, under stoves, etc. Allow no decaying matter of any sort to accumulate on or near your premises.” — Selected.