The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-06-17
COMMON HOUSE FLY
ALL ABOUT THIS
TERRIBLE LITTLE PEST
How to Combat IL and just the
Trouble Which Arises From the
Commonest of All Insects.

i
in houses throughout the country is
the house fly. 1t outnumbers many
times over all other insects found in
our homes. It's commences causes
us to overlook its presence, or too
often we accept it as necessary mat
ter of course, or at most as a slight
nuisance, and make no endeavor to
free ourselves of its presence. Were
the habits of the insect known much
ado would be made whenever the dis
gushing fly is found in our homes.
The ordinary flies with which we
are familiar have not always existed
in that form. Flies are the adult
stage of maggots, and between the
maggot stage and the adult stage
there is pupa stage, time when
the insect is motionless and helpless.
Maggots hatch in a few hours from
eggs laid by the adult house fly A
single fly lays on an average 100
eggs. The duration fthe maggot
stage is about five days The pupa
of which the pupa becomes the ma
ture fly. Accordingly in 10 days a
complete generation of house flies
may have been born, raised. and
have begun laying the eggs for an
other generation. Because of the
short duration of the life cycle from
10 to IA generations are produced in
the course of single summer.
But very few house flies survive
the winter and almost all of them
stay in our houses during the cold
months. The very few which escape
freezing, parasites. mould or disease
awaken in the spring to lay eggs for
the first brood of the season. From
then on house flies increase in num-
bers in geometrical ratio until they
quickly become a pest. Let us show
in conservative numbers the POSSIBLE
tiles of a single overwintering fe-
male:
May One female awakens to
lay 120 eggs.
May 15-Sixty females resulting
therefrom lay 1900 eggs.
June 5000 females of second
brood lay 432, 900 eggs.
June 15-216.000 females of third
brood lay 25,920,O0O eggs.
July 2.96O.OO0 females of
fourth brood lay 1,555,2O0,000 eggs.
July 15-777, 600 900 females of
fifth brood lay 1892, 100000 eggs
August 1-46,656, 10000 females
of sixth brood lay 5.59S,720, 900, 900
eggs.
August 15-2,799. 800, 100000 fe-
males of seventh brood lay 1929
200, 100000 eggs.
September 1-167, 961 GOO. 100000
females OF eighth brood lay 20,155,-
1872. 100000 eggs.
September Is - 1907. $780, 00,-
900, 900 females of ninth brood lay
1909, 500. 900 ,0OO,o 900 eggs.
Think of over a quintillion of flies
to torment us in the fall just because
solitary female escaped the inter!
Fortunately such numbers are never
realized for many flies of each gen.
Grafton never reach maturity. Were
flies to breed uninterruptedly for the
entire season the individuals of the
latter generations would not have
room to exist; the earth would be
covered with solid mass of flies.
Lack of breeding places is the only
reason why house flies do not occur
by the millions where one occurs
now.
The one hundred and twenty eggs
laid by the house fly are all placed
in fresh horse manure. If that can
not be found and human excrement
is available it is made the second
choice. Within a day the eggs have
Matched to maggots which proceed to
| feed on this filth. Five days OF feed
ing suffices to nourish them to their
full growth whereupon they change
to pupae. This change is accom-
plished by a shrinkage. toughening
and darkening of the maggot's skin.
Within this skin the maggot changes
over to the adult fly, process which
takes about five days more, but dur
ing which no food is consumed. From
what We have just observed concern
ing the food of the maggot 1t will be
seen that the bodies of house flies are
merely transformed excrement.
II is not an infrequent matter to
find manure alive with wriggling
maggots Hence a single stable or
an uncovered clubhouse is abundantly
able to supply flies to great many
L.