The house-fly has developed along with the human dwelling.
If we had no closed-in dwelling places, it is doubtful if
the house-fly, as at present constituted, could continue to
exist. It thrives simply because we afford it food, and a
breeding-place.
At first he is only a little worm, wriggling his tiny grub-like
form in some incubating pile of filth, usually the manure pile,
the outhouse, or the mound of rubbish or garbage in the back
yard. In this condition he is easily killed, and it should be
the duty of every person to kill him then. The house-fly could
not exist if everything were kept perfectly clean and sanitary.
Exterminate the fly-worms, do away with their breeding places,
and there will be no flies.
[Illustration: COMMON HOUSE-FLY]
The common house-fly is coming to be known as the “typhoid
fly,” and when the term becomes universal, greater care will
be exercised in protecting the house from his presence. Flies
swallow the germs of typhoid in countless millions while feeding
on excreta. They spread a thousand times more typhoid germs in
their excreta than on their feet.
As soon as the fly comes out of his shell he is full grown and
starts out in the world to make a living, and if your home is
not clean, he knows it; for the fly can discern an unclean odor
for miles. A pleasant-smelling substance--the fragrance of
flowers, geraniums, mignonette, lavender, or any perfumery--will
drive them away.
Look at the picture of the fly. The feet, each of them, is
equipped with two claws and two light-colored pads. The fly
clings to rough surfaces by means of the claws and to smooth
surfaces by a combined action of the claws and pads. The fly’s
pads are covered with thousands of minute short hairs sticky
at the end. There is no suction--merely adhesion. All his
grown-up life, the fly has to manage with sticky feet. These are
constantly becoming clogged with adhering substances, and this
contamination the fly must assiduously remove if his feet are
to act properly in supporting him on slippery places. If this
contamination is too sticky to rub off, the fly laps it off, and
it then passes off through the stomach.
The fly lays her eggs in the manure-pile or some other filthy
place. All the germs--all the microbes--fasten themselves on the
spongy feet. The fly brings them into the house and wipes them
off. The fly that you see walking over your food is covered with
filth and germs.
[Illustration: TRACKS OF A FLY, SHOWING THE WAY IN WHICH THEY
SPREAD DISEASE GERMS]
If there is any dirt in your house, or about your premises, or
those of your neighbors, he has just come from it. Watch him,
as he stands on the sugar, industriously wiping his feet. He is
getting rid of disease germs, rubbing them on the sugar that you
are going to eat, leaving the poison for you to swallow.
This does more to spread typhoid-fever, cholera infantum and
other intestinal diseases than any other cause.
Intestinal diseases are more frequent whenever and wherever
flies are most abundant, and they, and not the summer heat,
are the active agents of the spread of such diseases. There is
special danger when flies drop into such fluid as milk. This
forms an ideal culture material for the bacillus. A few germs
washed from the body of one fly may develop into millions within
a few hours.--B. M. CLINEDINST, _The Christian
Herald_.
(1112)
See PEST, CONTAGIOUS.
=Flying-machine=--See TENDENCIES, INHERITED.