Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-05-20
OUR ENEMY, THE HoUsE.FLY

Until about a decade ago, what
little protest was heard against the
fly came in the main from those of
our fathers, husbands, and brothers
who possessed that attractive fly-bait,
bald head. Otherwise, it was so
familiar a pest in every household
that its presence attracted little or
no attention. We used screens and
sticky Or liquid fly-paper to keep
down the population and save our
selves the irritation of the incessant
buzz-bu22 on hot day, but that the
fly represented any READ menace to
the household health was not imag
ined. Baby Bunting received homi1ies
on the fly's preserving qualities its
marvellous wall-climbing prove SIS, and
it's general meekness of nature, and
every child was taught tie sinful
ness of pulling out flys wings
Then suddenly the scientific men
began to find out things about the
relationship of the insect world to |
certain prevalent diseases The mo-
squlto became more than disagree
abla pest; it appeared as the trans
mitter of malaria germs. The tsetse
fly and sleeping sickness, a particu-
larly deadly and incurable plague,
We're found to be intimately associat-
ed i'm their labors. And the use-fly,
instead of a mildly annoying but
harmless domestic animal, was UNI
cloaked as a very enemy Within our
gates, purVeying germs of filth and
dis ase beyond scription
1t used to be a popular custom to
scoNer a use for EVERY liying crea-
ture and the sanitarians tell us that
the flys principal value lis as a
danger signal, indicating the presence
of dirt in some form. Whenever you
find files, there is cleanup work to |
be done, and the community which :
the warming will not be ;
among those boasting a low death :
rate.
Flies cannot live except in dirt;
1t is their natural habitat. A realty
Well-brought up fly as naturally pre-
fers unclean odors as fastidious peo- s
Pile prefer sweet ones. They are
bred in garbage, manure, or similar /
refuse; they derive their daily sus-
tenanoe from 1T; and in due course b
they deposit their eggs In titus /,
the cycle. When, then, n
q Misunderstanding fly drops into n
YOUR milk, or cream-p pitcher, scnambles O
about little and slowly crawls out n
again, he has brought minute por- |,
Ion OF the manure-heap to your II
breakfast table-minute but not so f.
minute as the millions of germs II
which dwell in this same manure n,
md which are transmitted wit it, A iii
evolting thought? Decidedly so, dt
tut mot more revolving nor nearly so ac
leadly as the facts i'm the case. cr
Every summer, by just such means, ca
he house7fly kills more people in the ra
United States of America than MUIR
er, storms, cyclones, mad dogs, and tn
osonous reptiles, all combined. Not to
y direct methods, of course-the su
ouse-fly does not work that way ca
mt by spreading the germs of ty- an
hold and various other intestinal he
lseases. The baby Is the fly's most to
elpless victim. As he lies sleeping re
his crib, the fly crawls over his sc
cad and hands, his nursing bottle, te
teething4ring, leaving germs in it's
AXE to be absorbed into the childs ad
gstem, not yet strong enough to tn
lroW off and conteract disease. ].
Ii there are flies in your house or an
our neighbor's, you are counting fe
anger for yourself and your house m;
Old. Ii the grocer, butcher, baker, be
nd tradesman from whom you buy lal
our foodstuffs has flies In his shop, to
ther withdraw your custom and to
sal in shop where the food is he
detected under glass and sanitary on
'nditions make ii an unattractive $0t
place for flies, or else force an,
I'M to clean UP. To get rid of pa
es, 1T Is necessary to strike at the :
ot of the evil by removing the 49,
eeding-places of these insects. See SCI
at all horse-manure, kitchen offal, :
I'd the like is disposed of inn such be,
ny that the housefly can not pro- to
gate.
A fly-trap arranged on the inside Bo
the garbage-can is sure to STAY its the
ousands, for this is the fly's gath Sc,
ing place; come shaped trap is 6 |
st and your dealer will explain how MOI
use it Ii you do not already know. to
The use of sticky fly7paper is an NE
her reliable method of ridding a RAJ
use of flies. 1t comes in several the