Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-22
COMMON HOUSE FLY
IT Is A PROLIFIC TRANSMITTED
OF DISEASE.
Typhoid Fever the Most frequently
Carried Ill-How the Spread Of the
Pests May Be Prevented.

With summer almost upon us and screens
and awnings being put on the hotels and
residences Of the city 1t behooves the care
full citizen to look to his health as at no
other time of the year, and with this in
mind his first attention should be directed
to the common house fly. If not an ex-
ploded theory that flies are the scavengers
of the air. it has been scientifically proven
that man can do very we'll without them,
for in those localities where proper precau-
lions against their breeding have been
taken a better average of health has been
maintained and no trouble experienced be-
cause of any extra contamination of the
cir.
Dr. L. o. Howard, the entomologist of
the Department Of Agriculture. is the au-
thority for the statement that the genera
ton of the house fly is limited to ten days.
and when to this statement is added that
a female deposits about 100 eggs at a
time, simple calculation of the offspring OF
a single fly that has chosen to remain with
us during the winter in order to get an
early spring start will result in figures that
will startle and terrify. The whole number
of children and children's children. and
chldrens childrens children and so down
the line of figures during the summer is
beyond belief and, when written, quite i'm
possible of comprehension. AS an illustra-
ton 1t may be assumed that q female fly
deposits 12o eggs, from which are developed
an equal number Of male and female Of
spring. Taking this as base for calcu-
latiOn and assuming that with each hatch
ing of the resultant flies there will be an
equal division of sex, it will be found that
at the end of the seventh generation. or
less than two and one-half months from the
laying Of the first egg, the enterprising
Mrs. Fly will have acquired an interesting
family numbering 1851 .0O3, so, 800 indi-
viduals. the chief object of each of which
seems to be to drown himself in the cofTee
or trim his finger nails on the point of the
human nose. And it must not be forgotten
that this calculation does not take into
consideration the fact that there may in
some hatchings be preponderance of
females, In which case the total would be
startlingly augmented.
Disease Transmission.
According to DIR. Howard the disease that
is most commonly transmitted by the house
fly is typhoid fever, and to avoid the i'll
we must get at the root of the evil and
effect a remedy. This is cleanliness about
the house and yard, particularly about
stables. for 1t is in these latter places that
flies breed. 1t has been found that when
precautions were taken with regard to the
cleanliness of stables the number of flies
was so perceptibly diminished to make
them scarcely noticeable. with a CORE
spending diminutiOn In disease OF all kinds.
With the germ theory fully developed and
substantiated by experiments during a
course of years it is now known that 1t is
in this manner alone that disease is spread,
and the fly is responsible for all that the
mosquito, flea and one other little insect.
unfortunately well known in many of the
best families, are not.
The first of all measures to be taken.
says DR.. Howard on the subject. Is to
screen the house thoroughly, killing all
flies and mosquitoes that may have got in
bof iS 7 hOnSa
filled with flies 1t is difficult problem
to eradicate them, but with these domesti-
Gated ones there is small danger. though
much annoyance. The danger lies in the
entrance of flies from an infected locality.
for when they alight upon the food pre-
pared for the table the disease germs that
they have brought with them from the
neighboring house of illness are deposited
on the food and the person who partakes
of it is very likely to contract the dis
ease.
The close relationship between flies and
disease and death is a matter that calls for
the unremitting attention Of all the people
so that drastic measures may be taken to
check the cause. Although every fly that
enters the house does not carry the germs
of typhoid on his feet he certainly does II
he has lately visited house where that
illness exists, and it requires only the
proper conditions for the inmates of the
next place of his visitation to contract
the illness.
Care of Stables. 81.
Stables in cities and everywhere else are
the primal causes of the flies. and DR.. How
ard asserts that from single pound of or
binary manure twelve hundred flies issue.
The figures already given will serve to IL
lustrate what Incredible numbers of the
pest will be Matched from the eggs later de-
posted by the females Of these twelve hun
bred from that one source alone. Multi
plying this pound by the tons Of uncared-
n1~1 no.,
and the result is sufficient to cause alarm.
Therefore with an abundance of house flies
breeding about stable. and with a per-
haps unsupported or not yet fully developed
case of typhoid in the immediate neighbor-
hood. there is no reason why the disease
should not be spread to healthy individuals
and that it is so spread Is not to be ques-
toned. 1t was forcbly demonstrated by
the army typhoid fever commission that in
vestigated the concentration camps during
the war with Spain. The remedy is plain
and consists of two courses of procedure:
Proper care of stables and the destruction
of the flies that have already bred there
abOuts.
To care for the stables requires but n
little chloride of lime and pit for the ma
nure. and for the houses screens. In thick
ly settled communities concerted action of
the inhabitants is necessary to carry out
these requirements. but that this should be
done is obvious. and to avoid malaria the
MOSQUITO must be cared for in similar ways
These pests breed in marShy places and
are the carriers of malaria On the same
high authority 1t Is stated that persons may
live in malarial districts with perfect i'm
munity If they are not bitten by the mala-
rial mosquito. but in order to avoid the
bites is almost impossible. and the best
measures are to protect the house with
screens and drain the breeding places Ker-
osene Oil poured in a thin coat over the
swamps is certain destroyer of the larvae
Of the insect. and since the life of a mos
quito is very brief these precautions will
soon make them a disagreeable memoNy
only.
Army Orders.