The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-05-15
Beu,Qre the
DeadlyFl
Pest Causes More Death Than
DO Wanderers, Storms
and Poisons
DIRT HOME OF INSECT

IL the house fly ever stops lon:
/ enough in its busy career for self pity
! it must surely feel itself victim Of
| the oft-quoted fickleness of publ,
| opinion.
Until about 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 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 ourselves the irritation of the in
ceSsant buZzbuZZ of hot day. but
that the fly represented any real men
ace TO the household health was net
imagined. Baby Bunting received hom-
lilies on the tly's persevering qualities,
its marvellous matchmaking proves
and its general meekness of nature.
Then suddenly the scientific men be-
gan to find cut things about the rela-
Uonship of the insect world to certain
prevalent diseases. Louise Fuller
writes in the Pictorial Review. The
mosquito became more than Disagree
able pest: it appeared as the transmit
ter of malarial germs. The tsetSe fly
and sleeping sickness. Il particularly
deadly and incurable plague, were
found to be intimately associated in
their labors. And the house fly, instead
of Il mildly annoying but harmless do
nestle animal, was unclsa!-ed as Il
very enemy within our gates, purvey-
ing germs of filth and disease.
1t used TO be Il popular custom to
discover Il use for every living crea-
ture, and the santarians tell us that
the f1y's principal value is as danger
signal, indicating the presence of dirt
in some form. Wherever you find .,ies
there is cleanup work to be done. and
the community which dsregards 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 4 really we'll
Drought-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
heir daily sustenance from it; and in
lue course they deposit their eggs in
It, thus completing the cycle. When,
hen, a misunderstanding fly drops into
your milk or cream pitcher scramnies
about little and slowly crawls ont
again. he has brought a minute por-
ion of the manure heap to your break
saSt table-Elinute, but not so minute
as the millions Of germs which dwell
in this same manure, and which are
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
vt work that way-Dut by spreading
ne germs of typhoid and various
other intestinal diseases. The baby is
the fly's most helpless victim. AS he
lies. sleeping in his crib. the fly craw,s
over bis 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 OF
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 ur-