Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-28
WAG|NG WAR ON BUGS.
Insects Are Summers Chief
Annoyances.
HOW THEY ARE C0MBATED
People in Need of Education Concern
ing Flies.
HOW THEY SPREAD DISEASES
Some Insects Whose Ravages Cost
Millions--Schemes for Destroying
Them in Great Numbers.
HOW THEY SPREAD DISEASES
Copyright 1906 by John Elfreth watkins,

Copyright 1906 by John Elfreth Watkins)
Insects are the chief source of human an
noyance at this season of the year Indoors,
with divers apparatus, they are being
fought as disturbers OF repose contamina-
tors of food and breeders of disease. Out
doors Sundays heavy artillery is being used
to combat them as vandals of property,
especially plant life. The total loss from
insects in this country would be counted in
billions of dollars almost any year. Thou
sands of our people die annually from mi
crobes carried to them by these pests-a
statement which would have been ridiculed
a few years ago.
Congress at its last session appropriated
500, 600 for warfare on insects, to be con-
Quoted through the federal bureau of ento-
mology Other bureaus of the general gov
eminent are incidentally working on the
Fundamentally the public health service
and tho aggregate of state appropriations
for hostiities against the same enemies
must be reckoned in the millions.
Reports of filthy meat packing conditions
took the nation by its ears a month or so
ago. The people awoke with one common
gasp and forced their lawmakers to make
long needed reforms The alarm clock of
science is set for another general awaken
Ing.
The finger of scorn will suddenly De
pointed this time, not at the big manu-
facturer of foods but at the small retailer.
The ultimate result of the controversy VIII
be demand for laws requiring the screen
ing from insects of all foods exposed Tor
sale and the arrest of all market men dis
obedient thereto.
The House Fly is Loathsome.
Tho fly will be looked upon as loathsone
rather than merely annoying as soon as
the people have digested this next lesson
III pure food hygiene. Science, In turning
lately from the mosquito to the fly, has un-'
earthed a manifoldly longer list of crimes
than were ever laid at the door of the
former. The common house fly has been
found to be the principal agent In the
spread of typhoid. The reason for this IS
that the principal breeding place OF the
house fly is the offal heap, which offers also
the favorite food of the newly Matched flies.
Particularly Is this true of the nth OF Inc
horse stable. DIR. L. o. Howard, chief OF
the bureau Of entomology, tells me that
900 housefiies and perhaps more Will issue
| from a pound of this filth; that only ten
days completes a generation of house flies
| In summer. and that the number Of eggs
| deposited at laying by each female ny
| averages 40. Thus the offspring of sim
| gle Overwhelming housefiy may in the
| course of a summer reach a figure almost
| beyond belief. It has been estimated at
| four and half sextlions
Dwellings which lack modern plumbing
are even more dangerous than stables. for
| obvious reasons. and a typhoid patient IN
such dwelling Is menace 10 his neigh
/ borhood far as flies can navigate. The
/ details are not very esthetic, and neither
/ was the Neili-Reynolds beef report. Writ
ers who limit themselves to pink tea topics
/ spread few reforms.
This evil is quite serious as were those
/ of Packingtown. Flies swarm upon food In
1 the kitchen which is invariably the room
| near the filth departments of the nome
( arrangement
The typical market store Is adjacent to a
| stable for the delivery teams and flies pass
| In swarns therefron, with their legs and
bodies smeared with filth. to collect upon the
/ exposed food offered for SALE and much of
| tho summer foods thus contaminated
fruit, lettuce radfshes and the nke-are
/ eaten uncooked. The typical fruit stand
| is directly upon the sidewalk. within a
| little fruit flies do not breed in the filth OF
| the stable, but In that which Is stored
| nearer the house, where modern plumbing
Il is not the inyariable rule. They are even
larger house files.
| Health authorities In extensive interviews
| express wonderment at epidenics of ty-
pifoid In the city of Washington was
/ recently completed an extensive filtration
| plant. and for a year the previously muddy
drinking water has been as transparent
as crystal Yet within this year there has
| been an alarming increase in typhoid. In
a recent interview the health officer sus-
gested that flies were to blame. Yet In the
4 typical market store OF the capital these
| filth spreaders are allowed TO swarm galore
i over the meats, fruits and vegetables.
Housewives. who are screpulVus on other
points, buy these contaminated articles
/ without protest. and Congress makes the
laws for the capital city-the same Congress
which called the beef packers TO shame.
/ How to Get Rid of House Fly.
The house fly can be greatly reduced In
numbers Or. Howard recommends an in