The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-04-23
GIVES REASONS FOR
FIGHTING THE FLY
Dr.. Pope's Department Makes an
Earnest Plea For Going After Fly
Pest-A Distributor of Disease.

l
The advent of warm weather leads
us to give some consideration to
question of prime Importance, to ev-
cry individual in Grenada County.
Namely The Common House Fly.
The breeding of house flies can be
controlled, only by universal coop
! Grafton of every citizen.
| 1t was an old observation that GER
tain diseases were associated with
filth, some with night air of swamps
and marshes, and others with particu-
lar places. The mysterious preva-
lence Of many of these diseases has
been explained by the discovery and
demonstration that they are trans
mitted by insects and other vermin.
The two flies which constitute
health problems through out the
country are the house fly and blow
| fly. Both are exceedingly common
during the warm months, and yet
their breeding could be readily con-
trolled, and thereby exterminated
| by the cooperative efforts of every
person in the community. They are
often the means of spreading ty-
phoid fever, dysentery, summer
diarrhea, and other infectious dis
| eases. Already there has been two
cases of typhoid fever in this county,
reported during the month of April
and we fear that there will be more
unless we have complete cooperation
in our public health campaign.
Flies transmit disease because of
| their habits of feeding on wet filth.
If all the excretions from human be-
ings were covered or destroyed, flies
could neither obtain disease germs
nor transmit disease. Some of the
germs adhere to the outside of the
bodies Of the insects, and some are
swallowed, escape digestion, and are
excreted in a living state. A fly is
a shaggy creature. Although it ap-
pears to be shiney and glistening,
its body is covered with hairs and
bristles which entangle great quanti-
ties of dust, dirt and bacteria.
When fly is magnified under a
microscope, it appears like a brist-
ling monster which has been wallow-
ing in the dust. Every fly is covered
with bacteria whose numbers depend
largely on their abundance in the
filth on which it lights. From 300,-
900 to 100000 bacteria may be OBJ
tanned from the outside of its body,
and as many more from it's digestive
tract.
A fly pours filth and bacteria from
its last meal upon our food, cur
skin, our mouths, and our eyes. 1t
pollutes them with its intestinal ex-
cretions, and sprinkles them with
the filth which it shakes from the
bristles on its body. II leave trail
of bacteria and filth on every sub
stance over which it crawls. 1t
spreads disease germs where-ever it
goes. and we'll deserves the name
deadly typhoid f1y).
House flies breed in manure and
most other kinds of decaying mat
ter. Their preference is stable ma
nure, but they will breed in pig pens,
garbage heaps, privies, and rotten
vegetable matter
It is estimated by good authorities,
that the offspring of two flies that
start breeding in early spring and
continue until December first, would
produce in these nine months pro.
vided no baby flies died, 10000
pounds of flies, or enough to fill ev-
cry building in the business district
of Grenada.
Every fly may justly be considered
to be a dangerous pest whose pres
ence in a house is menace to the
health of the inmates. Screens to
exclude flies, and brushes to drive
out the few which gain entrance, are
necessary articles of the sanitary
equipment of home. Other useful
articles of equipment are fly swat
ters, and traps.
The most effective measure of eX-
terminating flies is the control of their
breeding places. If the manure in
stables is carried away and either
spread upon the land or piled in a
firm, compact heap, few flies would
breed in it. If this is impossible a
one per cent solution of formalde-
hyd or dipping vat solution can be
sprayed in large quantities over the
two or three times week,
this will practically exterminate fly
breeding. One of the common breed
ing places in Grenada is the open
back toilet. Property owners will
please take notice and convert this
lnSaNltary type OF prlVy INTO ny
proof sanitary toilet. The neces-
sary information and assistance may
be obtained at the office cf the
County Department Of Health. All
public, and private stables, pig pens,
and cow pens, and all other places
where animals are kept must be
closely watched for fly pupae or
The above can be car
ried out on every farm in Grenada
County. This may be some trouble
but when we realize the fly that
.rawls over our food and over our
babies mouths, or has taken bath
n our milk has come most likely from
some manure pile, dead carcass, open
back toilet, or has just finished it's
neal from a clump of expectorated
;ubercular pus, we are forced to adj
nit that corrective or preventive