The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-05-05
BeWare the
DeadlyFly
Pest Causes More Death Thon
Do Murderers, Storms
and Poisons
DIRT HOME OF INSECT

If the house fly ever stops long
enough in its busy career for self-pity,
1t must surely feel itself a victim of
the %oft-quoted fickleness of public
opinion.
Until about a decade ago what little
protest was heard against the fly came
In the main from those of III fathers,
husbands and brothers who possessed
that attractive fly bait, a bald head.
Otherwise it was so familiar a pest
In every household that it's presence
attracted little or no attention. We
used screens and sticky or liquid fly
paper to keep down the population and
save ourselves the irritation of the in
ceSSant buzZ-buZz of a hot day, but
that the fly represented any real men
ace to the household health was not
imagined. Baby Bunting received hon.
lilies on the fy's ~persevering qualities,
its marvellous wall-climbing prowess
and it's general meekness of nature.
Then suddenly the scientific men be-
gan to find out things about the rela-
tionship of the insect world to certain
prevalent diseases, Louise Fuller
writes in the Pictorial Review. The
mosquito became more than a disagree
able pest: it appeared as the transmit
ter of malarial germs. The tsetse fly
and sleeping sickness, a particularly
deadly and incurable plague, were
found to be intimately associated in
their labors. And the house fly, instead
of a mildly annoying but harmless do
nestle animal, was uncloaked as a
very enemy within our gates, purvey-
ing germs of filth and disease.
1t used to be a popular custom to
discover a use for every living crea-
ture, and the sanitarians tell us that
the fy's principal value is as a danger
signal, indicating the presence of dirt
in some form. Wherever you find flies
there is cleanup work to be done, and
the community which disregards the
warning will not be among those boast
ing of a low death rate.
Flies cannot live except in dirt it is
their natural habitat. A really we'll
b%rought-up fly as naturally prefers I'M
clean odors as fastidious people prefer
sweet ones. They are bred in garbage,
manure or similar refuse; they derive
their daily s~ustenance from it and in
due course they deposit their eggs in
it, thus completing the cycle. When,
then, a Misunderstanding fly drops into
your milk or cream pitcher, scrambles
about a little and slowly crawlS out
again, he has brought a minute pOr-
ton of the heap to your break
fast table-minute, but not so minute
as the millions of germs which dwell
In this same manure, and which are
transmitted with it.
Every summer by just such means,
the house fly kills more people in the
United States of America than murder,
storms, cyclones, mad dogs and poison
GUS reptiles, all combined. Not by di-
rect methods, of course-the fly does
not work hat way-but by spreading
the germs of typhoid and various
other Intestinal diseases. The baby is
the fy's most helpless victim. AS he
lies sleeping in his crib, the fly crawls
over his head and hands, his nursing
bottle or teething ring, leaving germs
in its wake to be absorbed into the
child's system, not yet strong enough
to throw off and counterfeit the disease.
If there are flies in your house or
your neighbours, you are counting dan
ger for yourself and your household.
If the grocer, butcher, baker and
tradesman from whom you buy your
foodstuffs has flies in his shop, either
withdraw your custom and deal in a
shop where the food is protected under
glass and sanitary conditions make it
an unattractive gathering place for
flies, or else force him to clean up.