Death to the House-Fly

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 8, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 35.

Death to the House-Fly

(From advice of Merchants’ Association Committee of New York City.)

FLIES are the most dangerous insects we have. They are much more dangerous than bees or hornets; these may sting you, and the sting is painful, but you soon get over the pain. Flies do much more harm than this. They walk over filthy places such as sewers and garbage-cans; and after eating the filthy food which they find there, they come into your house and walk on the food you eat, carrying on their feet the tiny germs which live in filth just as you live in a house. These germs are not only filthy and disgusting, but many of them cause such diseases as typhoid fever, cholera infantum, and summer complaint. When the flies bring them from some dirty place to your food or leave some of them when they crawl on your face or hands, you may swallow these germs without knowing it and be taken ill with one of these diseases. So the fly that seems so harmless may do you much more harm than a bee or a hornet. Flies lay their eggs chiefly in stable manure, and if this is left without screens or other covers to keep the flies away, great numbers will be hatched in every stable.

Rules for Dealing with the Fly Nuisance

Keep the flies away from the sick, especially those ill with contagious diseases. Kill every fly that strays into the sick-room. His body is covered with disease germs.

Do not allow decaying material of any sort to accumulate on or near your premises.

All refuse which tends in any way to fermentation, such as bedding, straw, paper waste and vegetable matter, should be disposed of or covered with lime or kerosene oil.

Screen all food.

Keep all receptacles for garbage carefully covered and the cans cleaned or sprinkled with oil or lime.

Keep all stable manure in vault or pit, screened or sprinkled with lime, oil, or other cheap preparation.

Cover food after a meal; burn or bury all table refuse.

Screen all food exposed for sale.

Screen all windows and doors, especially the kitchen and dining-room.

Don’t forget, if you see flies, their breeding-place is in near-by filth. It may be behind the door, under the table, or in the cuspidor.

If there is no dirt and filth, there will be no flies.

If there is a nuisance in the neighborhood, write at once to the health department.

To Kill Flies

The London “Lancet,” the leading medical journal of the world, says that the best and simplest fly-killer is a weak solution of formaldehyde in water (two teaspoonfuls to the pint). Place in plates or saucers throughout the house. Ten cents’ worth of formaldehyde will last an ordinary family all summer. It has no offensive smell, is fatal to disease organisms, and is practically non-poisonous except to insects.

Pyrethrum powder, which may be bought at any drug store, burned in the house, will also kill the flies.