The house fly as a disease carrier : and how controlled / by W. E. Britton, State Entymologist.

Wilton Everett Britton

Date:: [1912]

Credit: The house fly as a disease carrier : and how controlled / by W. E. Britton, State Entymologist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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Breeding Places. House flies breed in all kinds of manure, especially fresh horse manure and cow dung. It was formerly supposed that they bred only in horse manure, but it has recently been shown that they breed to some extent in human excrement, in hog and chicken manure, spent hops and malt sprouts used as a fertilizer, in garbage cans, compost heaps, and even between the folds of old paper and old rags in the ashes on the dump. The maggots are seldom found more than two or three inches below the outer surface of the heap. When mature the larvae go downward into the manure in the lower edges of the heap or into the soil around the outside of the heap and transform to puparia. The most common breeding place, no doubt, is the manure which is allowed to accumulate in and around stables in sum- mer ; but in any attempt to reduce the number of flies all other possible breeding places should receive attention. Common Practices which are not Sanitary. Stable manure is often allowed to accumulate, unscreened and untreated, in the barn or stable, even though this is located near the house. Flies are sure to breed in such places in warm weather, and are attracted to the doors and windows of the kitchen and pantry by the odors of the food being cooked and stored there. They are ready to dodge in whenever the screen is opened, and are a constant source of annoyance to the house- keeper who tries to shoo them out. They crawl over the food, and soil the windows, fixtures and furnishings of the room. Manure, unless treated, or protected from flies, should not be allowed to accumulate near any house. Too often on the farm a swill tub is wholly exposed to flies, which are attracted by the fermenting and decaying substances in it, and fairly swarm around it. The privy, also, is seldom screened, and flies visit it and breed therein.

The house fly as a disease carrier : and how controlled / by W. E. Britton, State Entymologist.

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