THE HOUSE FLY 83 



of the joints is so severe that the skin about the parts 

 cracks and the hair falls off. 



There are a large number of species of Biting Flies. 

 Farmers and others living in situations other than towns 

 are all acquainted with one or more kinds. Some species 

 are as large as a Honey Bee. Every species of Blood- 

 sucking Fly should be regarded as an enemy, and in con- 

 sequence every possible effort should be made to reduce 

 their numbers. Apart from the alarm, unrest, and even 

 terror they cause to domestic animals by their painful 

 bites, as well as to the folk working about the homesteads, 

 they should, one and all, be regarded as possible carriers 

 of disease. 



One species of Blood-sucking Fly has already been the 

 means of prematurely sweeping into eternity hundreds of 

 thousands of the black people of Central Africa. Another 

 species holds great areas of fertile land secure against the 

 intrusion of the domestic animals of man, and in conse- 

 quence is a serious check on the expansion of the human 

 race, for no practical development can take place in 

 territories where domestic animals cannot live. 



Farmers can do a great deal in the way of checking 

 the increase of Blood-sucking, as well as House Flies. The 

 breeding-places of these terrible pests must be abolished. 

 Piles of decaying straw, leaves, chaff, stems of plants, 

 manure, garbage, &c., should be burned or scattered in a 

 thin layer over the ground so as to expose it to the sun's 

 rays, which will dry it up and kill the maggots of the fly. 

 If required for manure it could be put into pits and covered 

 with a foot or two of soil, or scattered and ploughed or 

 dug into the soil at once. 



