The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-08-16

% Of allowing it to breed uncheck- @
g ed."-L. o. Howard, chief of the Q
20 Bureau of Entomology, United 9
@ States Department of AGREED 0
Q ture O
6 9
O @ @ @ O Q Q Q O G @ @ @ 90 O o
The federal government has Just IS
sued a special bulletin on house Ties,
from which the following are ex-
tracts:
Life History q shs True House Fly.
Musca domestica commonly lays its
eggs upon horse manure. This sub
stance seems to be its favorte larval
food 1t will oviposit On COW manure,
but we have not been able to rear it
| in this substance 1t will also breed
in human excrement, and from this
habit it becomes very dangerous to
the health of human beings, carrying,
as it does, the germs of intestinal dis
eases such as typhoid fever and cEol-
era from eXcreta to food supplies. It
will also lay its eggs upon other de-
caying vegetable and animal material,
but of the flies that infest dwelling
houses, both in cities and on farms, a
! vast proportion comes from horse ma
nure.
1t often happens, however, that this
fly is very abundant in localities
where there is little or no horse ma
nure, and in such cases it will be
found breeding in other manure or in
Stops or fermenting vegetable mater
ial, such as spent hops, or bran, or en-
silage.
The number of eggs laid by an in
dividual fly at one time is undoubted-
Ily large, averaging about 100, and a
single female may lay four such
patches, so that the enormous num-
bers in which the insects occur is thus
plainly accounted for, especially when
the abundance and universal occur
renee of appropriate larval food is
considered. In order to ascertain the
numbers in which house-hy larvae oc-
cur in horse-manure piles, a quarter
of a pound of rather we'll infested
horse manure was taken on August
8, and in it were counted 100 larvae
and 146 puparia. This would make
about 1900 house flies to the pound
of manure. This, however, can not be
taken as an average, since no larvae
are found in perhaps the greater part
Of ordinary horsemanure piles. Meth
err, however, does it show the limit o.
what can be found, since about 20(
puparia were found in less than one
cubic inch of manure taken from q
spot two inches below the surface Of
the pile where the larvae had congre
gated in immense numbers.
Carriage of Disease.
In army camps, in mining camps
and in great public works, bringing to
gether large numbers of men for &
longer or shorter time, there is sci
dom the proper care of excreta, anC
the carriage of typhoid germs from
the latrines and privies to food b!
flies is common and often results il
epidemics of typhoid fever.
And such carriage of typhoid b!
flies is by no means confined to thes,
great temporary camps. In farm
houses in small communities and evel
\ in the badly cared for portions o
large cities typhoid germs are carried
from eXcrement to food by flies, ant
4 the proper supervision and treatmen
of the breeding places of the house H.
become most important elements il
the prevention Of typhoid
In the same way other intestine
germ diseases are carried by flies. TIL
Asiatic cholera, dysentery, and infar
tile diarrhea are all so carried.
Nor are the disease-bearing posi-
bilities of the house fly limited to in
testinal germ diseases. There i
strong circumstantial evidence tina
tuberculosis, anthrax, yaws, ophtha
mia, smallpox, tropical sore, and para
site worms may be and are so carried
Actual laboratory proof exists in tn
cases of a number of these diseases
and where lacking is replaced by Gil
cumstantial evidence amounting a
most to certainty.
Remedies and PreventiVes.
A careful screening of windows an
doors during the summer months
with the supplementary use of stick
fly papers, is a preventive measur
against house flies known to every
one, and there seems to be little hop
in the near future of much relief b
doing away with the breeding places
A single stable in which a horse
kept will supply house flies for an e,