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Show i - . THE HOMB This Department w Edited by Miss Hazel Love of the Agricultural Agricul-tural College. THE HOUSEFLY. By Prof. E. G. Titus. The hou-icflics with their buzz' and hum and continual effort to be everywhere every-where but where we want them. Tho pest of the Jritchcn, the troublesome disturber of an afternoon nap on a hot day, the unwelcome visitor a.t the dinner table, tiro carrier of typhoid. Why do we have them with us? Certainly Cer-tainly not because we need them, since they play a decidedly unnecessary unneces-sary part in tho life of modern mankind. man-kind. It is true that to some extent they can be classed as scavengers, but the things they breed in should not be left for thoir young to feed upon. Wc can care for the refuse ourselves to imuch better advantage and ire a much 'more thorough manner. man-ner. Not all the flics in the house arc houscflics, but more than ninety-eight in every hundred belong to that particular par-ticular species known as the housefly, (Muscn domestical L.). The housefly, house-fly, a medium sized grayish flynvith traces of darker bands' on ' its back, has mouth parts fitted only for sucking suck-ing up liquid suWstancos and' cannot pierce the skin, though they do rrcikc themselves very troublesome by mov-ing mov-ing their isprcadout mouth parts over one's flesh. It breeds principally in horse manure, sometimes in door-yard filth and in human excreta, cuml it X probably occurs in nearly 'every part of the world where man has lived. While houscflies arc incapable of biting there does occur in the house ait t mes another fly commonly called "The Stablefly" which has its mouth parts constructed on the same principle prin-ciple as the mosquito, that is, adapted ,for piercing through the skin andihus doing what wc ordinarily call fflit-,ing." fflit-,ing." The old saying that "flies bite nvorse before, a rain'' simply means that this species makes its'elf more than ordinarily prominent a,t such times, numbers of them -often attempting attempt-ing to t in the house before storms, Breeding in and feeding uponiu-jm4 uponiu-jm4 S&..Jiefly the opportunity to distribute the germs of several intestinal troubles, especially typhoid fever. The disease germs arc carried into the house on the feet and mouth parts? of the fly and distributed to our food supplies in the kitchen orat mcal-timc to our prepared food1. The rapidity with which houscflies incr-asc is almost incredible. Twelve hundred houscflies may be bred from one pound of hor.se manure. In one cubic inch of manure there has been ' found two hundred of the puparia of this fly. In the summer from the last ' of June onward a generation may be completed in ten days. According to Dr. L. O. Howard, eggs will liatch in eight hours, the larval period (the feeding period) lasts five days aaid the pupal, or resting stage five days. Ten daysl . Three generations a month 1 The average number of eggs laid by one fly is 120. Thus with the earlier generations taking from 14 to 20 days to develop and the Inter ones but ten days the offspring of a single female that lived over winter in some undisturbed fold of a curtain may in one summer reach numbers scarcely comprehensible. Fortunately nature docs not leave even the housefly undisturbed un-disturbed in its attempt to populate the earth; many flics die before eggs arc laid, a prey to disease, to other insects, to small animals and man; many more eggs fail to hatch, incredible incred-ible numbers die in the larval stages, from lack of sufficient food or the presence of enemies. But even with all of these controlling agencies, in oi'dcr to properly protect himself, man must use measures to decrease the numbers' of- the pest. Remedial Measures. The former can adopt a fcv measures meas-ures that will readily and cheaply reduce re-duce the numbers of flies. Concerted action upon the part of a community will reduce the numbers still more and when the villages and towns begin be-gin to take up the work we will see fewer flies andl there will be less typhoid ty-phoid fever and kindred diseases. A thorough and careful screening of windows and doors is necessarily a proper precaution. Supplement this with the use of sticky fly-paper and you have considerable relief in sight. A sinall dish of formalin on the window-sill will work wonders in reducing the numbers in the house provided all other Hquid9 arc removed re-moved from the room or covered so that the flics cannot get to them. Absolute cleanliness indoors and outdoors will always result in lessening lessen-ing numbers. Abolish the old-fashioned box .closet and use a modern form of earth closet or some forrm of vault that can be kept tightly closed and readily cleaned when necessary. Sprinkle daily with chloride of lime or even fresh earth. Its proper maintenance main-tenance will involve a little labor ami' time, but it will amount to nothing noth-ing as compared with the cost of a case of typhoid fever or even, compared com-pared with the worry and trouble tht flics cause the housewife. Abolish the outside manure pile. Let this word go out to every village mind over all the country side. Keep the stable manure in a. tight box or vault, sprinkle daily with .chloride of lime and remove and scatter often. Ocan up all decaying refuse in the yaird, in fact all refuse; burn it or 'otherwise destroy it Keep flics out of the sick room, not only because they annoy a sick person more than a well person, but on account of their farther-reaching actilon, their ability to carry disease germs from the sick room to the other oth-er parts of the house and even to other, houses. In the country and smaller towns we will probably not be ablcr'fbr years toi get entirclyridoPthc housefly but with a little trouble and some expenditure ex-penditure oftrmc'ttiid a small amount of(moncyv let, us' hold themj, under much better -control. |
