Control of Flies as a Nature-Study Problem 



C. F. Hodge 

 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 



"As for the typhoid fly, that a creature born in indescribable filth and abso- 

 lutely swarming with disease germs, should be practically invited to multiply 

 unchecked, even in great centers of population is surely nothing less than 

 criminal." — L. O. Howard. 



Present Status of the Problem. From Maine to California the 

 fly furnishes the best problem to use as an entering wedge to start 



us thinking: 



Fig. i — The question 

 that started out-door 

 fly extermination: 

 Why not put all the flies 

 in jail and let ourselves 

 out? (Asked by Roland 

 H. Hodge, aged 13.) 



about commun- 

 ity effort — "co- 

 operative good 

 will" ■ for 

 cleanliness and 

 comfort in our 

 homes and for 

 good health, 

 both of our- 

 selves and our 

 domestic ani- 

 mals. Since the 

 fl\ T combines 

 the deadliness 

 of effective con- 

 tact - infection 

 between filth 

 and persons and 

 foods, with the 

 impossible - to 



trace air-carriage (now discredited, except in connection with this, 

 or some other, flying germ carrier) extermination of flies becomes 

 logically the first step in effective disease prevention. It is sheer 

 waste of time to quibble about the exact number of cases of this 

 or that disease known to have been carried by flies. No man ever 

 did know, and never can know, all the places a fly has visited 

 within a day, or even an hour, of its alighting on his food. The 

 only way to settle all these questions is to eliminate this dust of 

 Xes — unknown quantities — from our health equations — get rid 

 of the flies entirely — and then see where we are. We have the 

 statistics by which to compare past with present conditions. 



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