The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-09-08


thing moist. Still, they do give their
victims some sort of chance, for the
germs they bear have to run their
chances with human digestive fluids.
The biting flies are even worse, for
they inoculate directly their victims
blood
a Greater Peril Than the Automobile.
Doubtless. in the course of time, the
police or congress will do som netting.
But i'm the meantime what is the care
full housekeeper to do? Given one
easy-going neighbor, and by midsum-
mer the flies will swarm by the ten
thousand; and any one of them. load
ed with the right kind of bacteria,
puts the children of the household in
greater peril than all the automobiles
that pass the street in year. There
are housekeepers who rely on screens
and fly-paper. There are kitchens
where most of the accidental deaths
among the insect population occur be-
cause the flies push one another off the
ceiling into the food. Neither method
is adequate, under modern conditions.
The fact is, the typhoid fly has
opened up a new branch of medicine.
The healing art began with the disease
of mankind. After hundreds of years,
came the veterinarians and the study
of the diseases of animals Lately we
have begun to treat diseases of plants
The next step must be to extend scien-
tific medicine to the diseases of
houses. And of all diseases of houses
that is the worst which has for its
microbe the typhoid fly.
But, unfortunately, when it comes
to treating diseases of her dwelling,
the best of hOusekeepers is in the
herb-tea and mustard-poultice stage
of medicine. All she knows about the
fly is that he wants to get into the
house, and that she wants to keep him
out. Why he wants to get in. and how
it happens that he there at all, are
questions belonging to stage of pre-
ventive household medicine which we
have still to reach.
Nevertheless, science has some con-
tribution to make. There are certain
facts concerning the household fly
which, when the housekeeper under
stands them, will help not a little in
the conduct of the war.
Why Flies Gather OH the Screen Door
1t is long step toward keeping
flies out of the house when one UNDER
stands why they want to come in.
Common opinion has it that the fly
meditates profoundly on the conduct
of life, knows what he wants and why
assembly around the top Of the kitch-
en- screen door to wait for the chance
to dodge it when the cook comes out.
AS a matter of fact, the fly is no
such rational thinker. He has one SUI
preme motive in life, and that is-to
move toward the strongest smell. He
enters the house because there are
more smells inside than out, and, once
in, he frequents the kitchen because
there are more smells there than IN
the parlor. The fly does not find it's
food by sight, but by odor only. In
fact, the flys sight is extremely poor;
for nature has never solved the opti-
cal problem of making a small eye
see as clearly as a large one. The
customary swarm of flies around the
kitchen door means only that the
kitchen windows are opened at the
bottom, and since the top of the door
is the highest opening in the room,
that, rather than one of the windows,
is carrying the out-draft and the smell
of yetsedray's soup. The moral is, adj
just the ventilation so that the out
draft shall be through a screened win
dow. No fly will ever see a door open
and deliberately fly in.
For the same reason, all unused
chimneys connected with freplaces
ought to be screened just as carefully
as the windows. In the cool weather
of early fall, when the flies are worst,
the chimney-draft is usually outward.
The fly never hunts for an opening to
come in by; but he does head up
stream to an air-current which bears
the SAVIOR of most human foods.
Therefore. when the air of the home
goes out of chimney, the flies come
in.
Batting the Fly with an Odor.
This is where the vegetarians have
the advantage over the rest of us. The
smell of "triscuit" and "corn-fiakes"
and "strengthfude" does not carry
like the smell of meat. One has only
to compare the conditions in a vege-
tartan restaurant with those in one of
the common sort, to realize that the
difference in the appeal which the two
make to ones own nose Is a fair
measure of the attraction of different
sorts of food for the fly. Here, also,
is one advantage of a good cook who
can keep food flavors in the food in
stead Of spreading them over the land
scape. There is a good deal that might
be said in favor of a flyless diet for
summer.
The fy's main purpose in life, then,
is to follow up smells. Here, there
fore. is his weak side, and here the
housekeeper must attack him. If the
fly goes where the smell is, there is
the place to put the fiy-paper. A bet
ter way still. sometimes, is to bait the
'tanglefoot." Any strong-smelling
food will answer; cheese, meat (Which
need not be strictly fresh), whatever
flies collect on, can be used to lure
them to destruction. OF two sheets of
fly-paper similarly placed, but one
baited and the other not. the baited
paper will catch two or three times as
many flies as the other. But the bait
must be, for the fly, the most promin-