FLIES IN THE SUMMER

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 96, 18 January 1938, Page 5

FLIES IN THE SUMMER

Dangerous Pests Can Carry Disease Into Every Home

SjUMMER, with all its joys, has also its worries, and not the least of them is the keeping of good health. With the hot weather come hundreds of those unwelcome little pests, the house flies, which are recognised by medical men as being some of the worst carriers of disease. In this article, contributed by the Health Department, are set down some facts concerning the house fly, is habits, and methods of preventing its increase.

JULIES are not only hatched in filth,

but they prefer to live in and eat it. They get into our houses by accident or when their food is scarce. They may carry germs on their feet and bodies and deposit them oh our food. Fly specks have been found to contain live germs of several diseases like typhoid fever, dysentery, etc. It is considered that in summer they may spread infection of epidemic diarrhea, which is such a serious disease in children. Each female fly lays about 120 eggs at a time and prefers manure for her nest, although garbage, wet paper and decaying grass are satisfactory. Maggots (larvae), hatch out of the eggs in about 24 hours. The maggots are white, somewhat resembling grains of rice, and are generally found just under the surface of the manure. They are very active and quickly burrow out of sight when disturbed. Before developing into the next stage the larvae crawl away from their breeding places into the loose ground at the edge of the manure heap or crawl under boards or stones, that is they leave the moist manure for a dark place. Here the larvae develop into the so-called “pupal stage,” enclosed in a thick dark shell. After several days the fullygrown fly emerges. Flies do not grow at all after emerging. How to Prevent Flies. TpLIES should not be allowed to breed. x Manure heaps or refuse pits should not exist near dwellings. Keep all garbage i n metal receptacles and keep it covered continuously with a tight-fitting lid. Leave nothing lying about which is likely to attract Hies. Paraffin is particularly distasteful to flies; a few drops sprinkled in dustbins, after they are emptied are effective, and a rag damped with paraffin and passed round window-frames will keep flies away. One method advocated for treatment of manure is by close packing, the. object being to kill house-fly maggots if present by subjecting them to the great heat produced by fermentation of the manure. Another method is spraying manure with a solution of light tar-oil. Borax (sodium chlorate) is reported to give satisfactory results. The advice of health inspectors stationed in the various centres is available on fly prevention.

For killing flies in the home, papers coated with tanglefoot are procurable almost everywhere, either in the form of sheets or narrow strips intended for suspension. It is sometimes advantageous to make a supply of tanglefoot for oneself, since its manufacture is quite easy, and once made it can be kept indefinitely in a closed tin and used as required. The best ingredients are castor oil and powdered resin, which are converted into tanglefoot by weighing out five- parts of the former and eight parts of the latter and heating the two together until the resin is entirely dissolved. There is no advantage in allowing the mixture to boil; for use it should be applied as thinly as possible while hot, or after being heated, to the surfaces that it is intended to coat. The latter may include glazed paper or paper coated with a solution of one ounce of ordinary glue in three ounces of water, applied with a fine brush all over the surface and allowed to dry before the coating of tanglefoot is given: unglazed absorbent paper is useless. Stout iron wires covered with tanglefoot for suspension vertically in kitchens or latrines, and horizontal wires stretched across the interiors of dininghuts above lovel hav© proved of

value. Naturally tanglefoot is effective so long as it remains “tacky.” The first essential of control is to remove the possible breeding grounds and to control adequately those that cannot be immediately removed. Fly control is most successful if instituted during the early spring months, as a single fly may have innumerable descendants during one season. Flies travel for miles in all directions, their strongest attraction being food. Our next-door neighbours are therefore by no means the only ones with whom we must make a fly suppression pact.