THE FLY PLAGUE.

Evening Star, Issue 14529, 3 December 1910, Page 2

THE FLY PLAGUE.

Tile time of the flies is at hand. It ma.v bo north while to anticipate it with some •erious advice. The fly does not impress iii by its seriousness. Ho is rather a conii ■a! fellow. He teems to enjoy a joke. Hut ho is like a Scotchman : it takes him some time to perceive. Watch him as lie -.its meditatively for a while. Ho is punfering some deep problem ; or is it some humorous story that he has recently hear cl * Suddenly ho seems to seo his way through *■ if. He rubs his hands with glee. He ilrokes down has wings, and shakes his head, and puts his hands to his sides, and ’.anglis immoderately. So the casual watcher might interpret his movements. ‘ But others studying them give a very ■ iitforont interpretation. To the scientists 1 he is not comic but tragic. They call c him, in fact—this funny-looking creature c —the “ most dangerous animal in the world. ’’ He hills millions of human beings ‘ ■•very year. An American scientist talcu- • 'ales, that in that country alone, in a 1 .■jnglc generation, the common fly reduces • ihe average Siam of hie by two years. And 1 'hat means in a generation four million, < Mid a money loss of d.OOO millions strr 1 ijng. That is an amazing slalcmenl, nn-l ] it invites serious attention to this innocent- i 'coking creature. ' • *«*««« ' How is if. that the fly is the most for- ‘ n id able foe of man? We may set down 1 die fact.- about him, from his origin in 1 •11th to his end in corruption. The tly * lays its eggs in the manure heap—prefer < ably, perhaps, horse manure. As many 1 ■as 1,200 house flies have been found in a • •>onnd of it. But the fly is not particular, i So long as there is any sort of lllth about, bat is its happy hunting and breeding grounds. And it believes in keeping the ■1 idles lull. A single fly will lay as many . as 120 eggs, and it may do this four times hi a summer. The children born of these •epeat 1 ho process in less than a. month. If we take sax months ns the bivinincr. a 'idle arithmetic will show that the p'-geiy of a i-.ir.clo fly will be considerably over 10,000,000,020,000, That is a pretty, extensive family. But it is not less expensive. We have corn that it is born in filth, and it is the distributor of tilth. It is the dis'rilmfor of filth because that is its food. While feeding on excreta it swallows the germs of typhoid fever in countless millions. And it not only swallows these, but it carries a. thousand times more of ‘hem on its icct and legs, they aro singularly adapted for this purpose. The legs have a coating of hair that forms a happy hunting-ground for swarms of bacteria. His feet are equipped with two claws and two light-covered pads. These Jailer are also covered with thousands of minute short hairs, sticky at the end. 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 -in slippery places. This is the “joke” that ho is working olf when he shakes himself down with his logs and rubs his hands in seeming glee. What he cannot thus got off ho lops up and passes it away through the stomach. * -x- * * * * And what is the stuff that he is thus s-> diligently laboring upon? It is what ho finds among the filth in which ho has been and on which he feeds. He is not only the distributor of countless germs of typho-o, bur of cholera, diarilirea, and possibly also tubireulosis, anthrax, diphtheria, ophthalmic, smallpox, and swine lover. Nice visitor this to come into a house! All the abominable things he swallows or wallows among in this tilth outside ho brings with him wherever he enters. .1 he number of passengers of this sort that one fly om accommodate is amazing. They vary from 250 to over 6,000,000. And the rapidity with which they can pick them up is not less so. Mies have been captured and cleaned, and allowed to walk over infected material. Last summer a. Now York fly was thus experimented with, and it was found to be “ carrying in his month and on his legs over 100,000 fecal bacteria.” The intestinal diseases which are so frequent in summer tire due almost entirely [o the 11 v plague. Atid wo can now easily mulmsland why. The flic.; that eomo into , m- houses have just arrived from the tilth heaps about, them or from thcf,;; of ;nr neighbors, for they can detect an unclean odor miles away. Watch him a# he stands on the sugar industriously wiping his feet. He is getting nd ot disease germs, rubbing them on the sugar that you are going to c-.it. leaving the poison for von to .swallow. . . . i on cannot 'get disease mile's you swallow the germs, and you do not swallow these unless they get on the food yon oat or in ibn liquids you drink or on (he glacises; or .-up from which you drink. . . • .Milk is an idea! culture for the bacilli which they distribute: a- few germs, washed from the body of one fly may develop into millions within a- few hours. When Moses ordered up the plague of flics we do not wonder to be told “the land was corrupted because of thorns” #*«■**** And yet, contemptible and corrupting as thev are, perhaps no creatures in creation supply more interesting materials for study. it is not only their death-dealing ■ powers, stub as wc havo described, that- ■ aro wonderful, hut other things about them arc scarcely less so. Their wings are capable of making 15,000 beats; in a second. Then ihmr eyes are extraordinary both in number and in construction. .! he whole head may be said to consist- oi eves. There, aro from 8,000 to 10.030 of them. The head of the- fly Ls immovable. It cannot turn it from one rude to another, so it has ?vee all over it -some looking right, others left-; some looking before, and some- behind. The eyes arc immovable, hard, and dry, and retain their form after death. They are, so small, even those of a bluebottle, that 1,000,000 of them would not ■over the surface of a square- inch. Each ■ye ineusiires barely a thousandth part o; 1 i square inch in diameter. The males 1 have more eye,; than tho females. '1 he color is usually red. Other insects have are.V. yellow, green, blue, brown, and 1 black eyes. Tho perfection of tho fly’s lenses is remarkable. Windows deceive him, especially after they ha.vo been cleaned. The fly starts for the landscape., attracted no doubt by somo unclean odor, full speed ahead. When about three feet from the, glass he is horrified to discover an obstacle in his track. Ho reverses tho engines at once, but it is too late, and he comes smash against tho glass r with his eyes. The angry buzz that follows telle of his discomfiture. Flies like other higher insects, pass through the four stages—tho egg, the larva, tho pupa, and the adult. Tho mother fly goes to the manure heap or decaying vegetable matter and deposits her on* hundred and d twenty eggs or so. Then she goes e visiting- She cares no more for her chilli dren. They manage very well themselves. 0 In twenty-four hones they hatch into grublike affairs —larva;. These eat ravenously I* for from five to seven days, so much so that their skins get too small for them, 1 and they have a change of them throe limes. Then comes the third stage, the pupa, and then in abojgt live days the tubblown fly, But there are no baby flies.

There are big flies and little flies, but not in the same family. They are different species. But big or little, they are all dangerous. There is but one thing to do with them. It is what the French king did relative to the Huguenots when he was pestered into the massacre of St. Bartholomew : “ Kill, kill them all; leave not a living soul to reproach me." * * * * * * * The first business is to destroy their breeding-places. It is said that every country lias the criminals it deserves. And every bouse has the. flies it deserves. It usually breeds its own flies. And we have seen where lire flies come from. They come Irom filth, manure heaps, decaving vegetable matter, and such like. These must bo cleared away. In London no manure can be kept longer than foifreight hours on any promises, and then only in covered water-tight tanks. Keep flies out of garbage, buries, lavatories, etc.: bum what is burnable, and cover up all llv-breeding stuff with quicklime or kerosene or ashes. We have gone far since Moses’ day. bn: it may he doubted if his laws regarding cleanliness are not in advance of ours yet. When flies have got near food it ought to he destroyed. It is vastly cheaper to throw out milk or cream into ‘which a fly has fallen than to pay afterwards the bill of the doctor and the undertaker. It is wise, also, to Lake every precaution to keep flies from getting into' the house. For this purpose all windows should, as far as possible, have screens upon them that would prevent the entrance of these death-dealing pests. It is not possible, however, to hinder some from gelling in. The trouble is that people may not bother themselves either to keep them out or to kill them when they tome in. But the peril is so groat that no pains should be spared to destroy them either outside or inside the house. Five .minuter with a loosely-folded newspaper will make short work of a gicnt number. One sometimes looks very foolish, and feels it too, hunting, say, a bluebottle and hitting the place which he has just left. Like the definition of a ilea: you put down your linger, and it is not theic. And the fly goes dancing about the room thinking it ie your fun, and when you settle down disgusted value* around your nose aeain, as much as to say. "Come on, have another came." But if yon persist you will succeed at last; and always remember that it is time well spent. If, however, you do not care to personally murder them, you can do it by proxy. Here are (torn* formuhe that you may use for the purpose : Heat a shovel or any similar article. Drop twenty drops of carbolic acid. This kills them. A cheap and reliable poison, and one that is not dangeimis lo human life, is bichromate of potash in solution. Dissolve one drachm in two ounces of water; add a, little sugar. A spoonful of formalin or formaldehyde in u pewter and exposed in the room wid be efb clivo. 1 hit> should be kept out of the way of children or animals. Where there is a large numirei of flics in the room, close it up tightly, and sprinkle pyre thru in on a tin which has been iieated sufficiently lo give off a dense white smoke. This dc.es the business also. Then (here arc the fly papcis, which kill easily. But (he point, is in the killing—to do it now. One fly killed before it has laid its eggs means millions Icm in the summer. A little bov asked ins mother "if Hod made elephant's." " V-." "And lions?” •• y Cf .” " And flic..':" "Ves." Then, after a meditative pause, ho said : T*<>(11 in’ work making lie's,'.’ it may ho: hut it is no fiddlin’ work to kill them. In ihe.-e times, when wo are so ready to multi ply holidays!, we might do worse than inaugurate a great national festival llykilling dav. We might, indeed.