Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-19
Get Ready to Fight
the Troublesome Fly

the fight now. This mild and snowles'
winter, which is likely to be followed
by an early spring, has been very IA
yorable for the muSca domestica, anc
many of the breed have hibernated wifi
comfort in houses, barns and garages
They are already coming forth to re
new their unceasing efforts at world
domination. Stray individuals are
| humming impudently about living
rooms. and they begin to assert in some
| restaurants their claim to the first sup
! While other insect enemies of man
! kind usually afford some respite, COM
! ing in hordes that are not equally nu'
merous and malignant every year, there
! is no such relaxation in the activity OF
| flies. They never intermit their efforts
Land if they are more abundant some
years than others, the difference is not
| due to any natural periodicity like that
affecting locust swarms, but simply &c
accidental or temporary circumstances
of which the varying intensity of the
human war of defence waged against
them is one of the most important.
One of the greatest mistakes to make
about flies is that of treating them as
practically harmless until they appear
in swarms A single fly in the house,
in the spring time. a fly that has come
out of it's hiding place ravenous for the
foul nourriture that its race prefers, but
also eager 10 get its unclean feet on
every fresh-cut loaf or slice of bread,
and into every sugar bowl and dish of
meat. is potentially capable of starting
death-march in that house.
This winter we have had one of the
severest epidemics of grip and pneu-
monia ever recorded. Such diseases
house in spite of efforts at publication,
and the saprogenic fly will find the
contagion in its hiding-places. drag it
forth, and reawakep its virulence by
spreading it again through the human
system. Kill the first fly you see! Run
it down and annihilate it at any cost
From a single batch of it's eggs 120
other little winged demons may be fully
developed within from eight to ten days.
If only half of those 120 are females
in another fortnight they may have pro-
duced q multiplied host of 1900. And
the next generation, less than two weeks
later may be buzzing about your ears,
and befouling and poisoning your food,
to the number Of $4,000! All that from
one original dissembler whom you al
lowed to go undisturbed because she re-
minded you of spring, and you would
not be unhospitable to n creature who,
| though unlimited, had passed the win
ter beneath your roof. The descendants
of only 100 such originals might, in a
month or six weeks. number 43,20O,-
000I
OF course, the figures just given are
probably excessive (although that is
not so certain for every fly lays several
patches of eggs each averaging 120 in
dividuals), and the infant mortality
among flies may be great enough To
keep down the number to be multiplied
at each generation considerably lower
than the estimate, but, however re.
duced, the figures are sure to remain
startingly large.
1t should also be said that the great
majority of flies which appear in the
spring are not the progeny of the
ADULTS which have had the luck to find
safe refuge in warm houses but thev
come from eggs or pupae deposited in
refpse heaps the preceding fall, where
! they lie protected from the frost. a
winter as warm as this must fayorab ble
10 successful wintering of the eggs
aIthougn IN ordinary circumstances. no
doubt, long-enduring snow may serve ae
blanket against the cold. But This
time the temperature has been SO uni-
. formly high that the snow bIanta,
| could hardly have been missed.
suppose that the season shouId onar
TWO or three weeks earlier than If ordi.
nariiy does; then the flies. whether
/ those alternating in buildings mr. those
left undeveloped in the breeding nlacas
would have the advantage of at -Ies 81
Two successive generations to start With
aodeo TO the dozen or more generations
Whlch measure the ordinary nerio5 ~
annual ny domination. This means th.t
taxing the figures we have arrived 81
above, the ultimate number of dasca,d
ents OF each individual mother fly that
started her string of generations with
lhe nrst warmth of spring might he
b2OO times greater than it would h,,,o
peen IN an ordinary season. So. wbetha-
or not we have hot weather aariio
than usual this year, the flies will sti,,
nave the advantage which tho av.,.a
ordinary winter has afforded then, T.ho
only thing, apparently, which couId do
priVe them of that would be a very cola
late spring, and one would rather fsos.
nies than face that!
some people undertake the defiance ..
MES on the ground that they are usaf,,i
scaVengers. The answer to that 10 ar
IL is easier, cheaper and less -dangaro,,s
10 get rid of the offensive things u,htoL
mes devour than to leave the cIeanina.
up 10 be done by a host of disaase
breeders. which carry about deadII,
germs and distribute them broa dca ..
like an old-fashioned dust-raising broom