HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 June 1944, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

THE BLOWFLY MENACE

Blowflies have some uses, but not many. In the main, they are just as big a menace to health as the housefly, and they need to be tackled with the same determination as the smaller pest. In nature they are useful in that their lavae dispose of much decaying animal matter, such as dead birds, mice, and so on, and these constitute their principal breeding places. There is one type of blowfly which enters the house in search of small pieces of meat for breeding places, and besides making food unfit to eat it spreads disease germs wherever it touches. Blowflies are powerful fliers, and they will travel miles looking for favourable breeding places. This makes them difficult to control. The main way to check them is to stop them breeding, and to stop them breeding calls for eliminating all likely breeding spots. In the house this means a flyproof nantry, and where country homes are subject to the blowfly, doors and windows require screening. Use flycatchers, fly traps, fly powders and sprays inside the house. Be systematic and determined. Outside the house see. that no bones or meat lie around, and if you are in the country arid do your own killing see that no offal, lies about. Bury it well or burn it; A'