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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 9, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 15.

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Flies

By E. D. Haysmer, M. D.

E. D. HAYSMER, M. D.

As we are rapidly approaching the time of the year when fly-borne diseases are encountered, it is well for us to pause a moment and consider the gravity of the situation and the means at our disposal for eradicating the cause of these disorders. Can disease actually be prevented or lessened by getting rid of flies? The answer is, Yes, much can be accomplished.
That flies spread many diseases is no longer doubted, and the "typhoid fly" is known everywhere. Typhoid fever, however, is only one of the fly-borne diseases. The germs of diphtheria, tuberculosis, cholera, diarrhea, "summer complaint of children," and possibly those of scarlet fever, meningitis, and other diseases are carried by the fly.
Flies are disease carriers. They are given to living on filth, and it may be said that where there is no filth there are no flies. Flies require nourishment, and when food is denied them, they either die or seek quarters elsewhere.
The ordinary domestic house fly is one of the most dangerous members of the animal kingdom, and presents to mankind today as great a problem as the much-spoken-of and dreaded mosquito. In civilized countries we no longer dread the larger animals, as those that are dangerous have become extinct, and those that are useful have been domesticated; but we, nevertheless, have a problem on our hands, as it has been proved time and again that many of the smaller pests are far more dangerous to the life of a community than were ever the larger animals.
While the mosquito transmits malaria and yellow fever, yet, with the application of our knowledge along preventive lines, these diseases are rapidly becoming rarities, and some of the formerly most-infected regions in the world are fast becoming "health resorts." This is all due to the fact that the relation existing between the mosquito and disease is known. Today we know the relation that the fly bears to disease, and now this knowledge is being used as a great aid in the eradication of these fly-borne diseases.
On every hand are seen the pernicious effects of typhoid fever, tuberculosis, etc., and it is easy to see that the prevention of these grave maladies is of the utmost importance.
The fly will feed on the most obnoxious germ-laden filth, and then take its dessert from the baby's milk bottle. Flies carry germs on their legs. They wade through and feed on filth and excretions, and then fly away to do their deadly work in the home. They have been observed on the dining table with lime on their legs which had been used to disinfect the excretions deposited in near-by military camps. When their legs are bathed and the water examined by a microscope, germs are seen by the thousand. Milk that they have had access to is soon found to be teeming with germs. Should a fly become laden with disease germs, the result is that some one is exposed to a disease, if the fly is allowed to come in contact with food.
The fly has been depicted as the bearer of the skull-and-cross-bones ensign, and this is very appropriate, as there are many, many graves that trace back in origin to its contaminating presence. Children are most liable to the ravages of diseases due to milk contamination, and yearly thousands are taken sick and die from preventable diseases, because we tolerate the house fly. For years pure food has been regarded as one of the greatest essentials to a healthy existence, yet only lately has it been thoroughly understood that flies may so contaminate what would otherwise be good food that it may be positively harmful or the cause of some definite disease.
It is time that we realize as never before the fact that flies are our enemies, and that every effort should be made toward their extermination. To rid the country of its mosquitoes, while a tremendous task, is yet easier than to rid it of its flies. A government may drain swamps, etc., but the individual effort is the element that counts in this battle that is now being waged against the fly.
As flies breed and multiply greatly in the early part of the warm weather, and continue to do so until it is very cold, it may be seen that for every fly that is killed now a whole generation, sometimes amounting to many thousands, may be prevented. The season has now come that will give the most success in this great exterminating campaign. During the early spring days some cities are offering bounties on flies. Says a dispatch from Fort Wayne, Ind.:—
"After examining statistics showing that a fly permitted to live in March becomes the progenitor of 93,312,000,000 flies in August, the Woman's Clubs League of Fort Wayne has offered a bounty of one cent for each fly killed and brought to the headquarters of the league. After 5,000 March flies have been brought in, the bounty ceases. At that time, the league figures, it will have been responsible for a shortage in the fly crop of 466,560,000,000,000 flies."
Similar crusades are being conducted in other cities. There should be carried on everywhere a vigorous antifly campaign, the results of which will depend on individual effort.
The most successful means of ridding one's premises of flies is to keep everything out-of-doors scrupulously clean, allowing no filth whatever to accumulate, no water to stagnate, and securing the benefit of all the sunlight possible on the ground. Barns and all outhouses, as well as the dwelling house, should have all windows and doors screened. Stable litter and all like material, in a word, everything upon which flies feed, should be either done away with or screened.
Every fly that gains entrance to the inside of the house should be hunted out and killed. This is of the utmost importance, as it is the fly in the house that is usually responsible for the disease.
Outdoors, flies may be caught in traps, which, when properly constructed, will permit of a wholesale destruction of these pests. For indoor use, the most popular methods are the use of the fly swatter, fly paper, and various poisons. Of these the fly paper and the fly swatter are to be recommended most highly.
It is very desirable that during the year 1914 more flies be killed than ever before, and that a most earnest cooperation be obtained which will result in the furtherance of this swat the fly campaign. A great reduction in fly-borne diseases is certain to be the result of intelligent, earnest cooperation in this undertaking.
Washington (D. C.) Sanitarium.