NI 
oe) 
INJURIOUS INSECTS OF I909 AND IQIO. 
minutes sit upon the edge of a glass of jelly or alight in the sugar bowl. It 
may visit the body of an animal that has died of anthrax, and a little later 
brush across a lacerated hand or cheek.” 
Bread, pastry, candy, 
fruit or vegetables ex- 
posed for sale without 
being covered, are subject 
to visits of flies, which 
may previously have 
able, 28; DaEy® or anaeegt of woes crawled over (thc maui 
the street OF sewenmon 
privy. An abundance of intestinal diseases is contemporaneous with 
the greatest abundance of the house fly, that is, during the hottest 
period of mid-summer, showing a connection between these two. 
As many as one hundred thousand bacteria, which came from mat- 
ter voided from the intestine, have been found to be present on one 
fly. In our late war with Spain it was declared on reliable authority, 
and from actual data, that while we lost only two hundred and fifty 
men, practically, by bullets, we lost five thousand through the 
agency of house flies. This refers to criminal negligence in con- 
nection with the hospitals; the trenches containing the excrement 
of typhoid patients not being covered, and the flies, after crawling 
over this germ-laden matter, flying to the mess-tables of our soldiers, 
and polluting the food thereon. 
The house fly passes the winter in 
some snug retreat, either as a perfect 
insect, Or as a pupa, appearing on the 
scene in the first warm days of spring. 
The female lays a hundred or more eggs, 
Hous Wig. nateral siza ona leach egg being about one-twentieth of 
enlarged. After Metcalf. : : : : 
an inch in length, which quickly hatch 
into maggots. These become full grown in about six days. The 
pupal or resting stage lasts six days. There are, therefore, from 
ten to twelve days from the egg to the perfect fly. They breed 
primarily in fresh horse-manure, hence the more of this waste that 
is allowed to accumulate, and the nearer it is to the dwelling house, 
the more will said dwelling house be troubled by flies. They also 
lay their eggs in other kinds of manure, in decaying vegetables, in 
sewage, in waste from the human intestine, and in various kinds of 
filth. They do not bite, but they lap or suck up food in a liquid 
state. When one sees a fly resembling a house fly on his hand, and 
