West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1916-07-20
COUNTY FARM NOTES
John n. Devoe. Agent

Did you ever stop to think about
the damage that is done to the human
race by the common house fly. There
is undoubtedly no other agency I'm ex-
istence that carries so many disease
germs as this pest. Typhoid fever. tu-
berculosis. dysentery. cholera infan-
tum. etc, are spread by flies and since
, these are assured facts why is It that
so many people do not take steps TO
eradicate them. Aside from the fact
that they are disease carriers is not
their repulsiye nature sufficient to JUS
tify you spending some effort in get
1 ting rid OF them. The following Is the
autobiography of a fly written by
well known authority on sanitation:
The Autobiography of n Fly
/ Once / was only tiny. white, oval
egg. My mother laid me with hun
dred others I'm stable dirt After a
few days / Matched out. a little white
worm. l fed for week or two on the
filth where l was. then changed into
a brown pupa. Several days later /
burst forth a full-grown fly. with two
| gauzy wings.
Since then have travelled about a
| good deal My feet have a fine little
fuzZ on them; you cannot see IL with
out a magnifying glass, but it is just
splendid for catching germs OF all
kinds. They also cling to my wings
You would not think so q am so
! smalD, but really / can carry 5000 900
bacteria on my body at once.
| What kinds OF bacteria? All kinds
but especially typhoid fever and sum
mer complaint, which kills so many
young children and adults. You do
not hear of summer complaint in win
ter; am not flying around then. leav-
Ing the germs on the baby's bottle, or
lighting on its lips, or falling into the
milk, or feasting in the sugar bowl, or
crawling over the dish towels hanging
in the kitchen, or on the food there
and in the pantry.
| l also carry tuberculosis germs; in
fact, pick up good many kinds of
germs, for love to fit about, lighting
on filth of any kind / can find. or
course, having Matched out In il and
lived on it the first part of my life,
you could not expect me to do other
wise. But l also love to feast on can
dy, cake. sweets, meat, cheese and ev-
cry kind of food.
l am really quite ancient, being one
of the very few flies that lived over
last winter 1 hid myself in some
body's kitchen.
l cannot tell you anything about my
descendants, but a very learned scien-
fist said l might have 1892, 500 ,O00,-
100000 in one summer. So there is no
danger of the fly crop failing, even
though only very few of us live
through the winter.
III people cleaned us out of their
houses, stores, markets and stables,
while it is still cold, so we are stiff
and inactive, and burned us up, and
then kept everything clean, so there
was no filth. stable liter or decaying
garbage for us to lay our eggs In. we
would be starved out and disappear.
If stable refuse and street sweep
ings that we have laid our eggs In is
carted away and piled up to decom-
pose, we will hatch out there, and tor
ment the farmers cattle, so the cows
will give less milk. and the horses will
lose some of their vitality, having to
fight us off all the time. We make II
lot harder for the horses every
summer
II you want to get rid of us the
only way Is to prevent us from having
any breeding places, by keeping all
stable refuse screened, or treating II
thoroughly every little while with lime
to kill our eggs
Some day people will become en-
lightened enough so they will clean
everything up thoroughly early I'm the
spring. brushing off every one of us
that Is clinging to the electric light
cords and scale cords in the markets
and groceries and from the walls
They will swat" us without mercy
until we disappear.
I suppose people would not like "a
have us leave flyspecks on their can
dy, cake and bread, If they knew the
specks We're our excreta, and also that
they might contain disease germs, but
they do not seem to know IT, They
say, "oh, 1t is just fly speck;" They
do not seem to care II their bread and
cake are fiyspecked. They buy them
in the market Just the same when
they see us crawling over them.
They think wrapped bread looks a
little smaller, but by actual weight
one bakers loaves were just the same
another's had about four mouthfuls
less in the wrapped loaf SO people
continue to buy the unwrapped bread
If they had watched us coming from
the human excreta and stable filth per
haps they would not be so willing Ia
have us make a doormat OF their food
But they never notice, so we swarm
over the food in the markets and gro
ceries and have access to many a
highly respectable kitchen
came near losing my life this
morning bathing in somebody's milk