CHAPTER V 



INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 



Flies. These are the commonest and often the most 

 annoying insects we have. We are obliged to screen our 

 windows and doors to keep them out. They flyspeck 

 everything they can get at, crawl over our food, fall into 

 our milk and cream, lay their eggs, flyblow our meats 

 and fruits and other foods. There are hundreds of dif- 

 ferent kinds of flies. Little flies and gnats, so small we 

 can hardly see them, never grow to be big flies. They 

 are all different kinds. 



The question is, How can we get rid of the three or 

 four troublesome kinds that infest our houses ? In order 

 to answer this question, we must learn their life histories. 

 The picture below gives the four stages in the life of 

 every fly : the egg, larva or maggot, the pupa, and fly. 



The common house fly, Musca domes tica, lays its eggs 

 in horse manure and dooryard filth. How many eggs one 

 fly may lay is not known, nor how long a fly may live. 

 A fly has been known to deposit as many as forty-five 

 eggs in a single night, and she probably lays hundreds or 

 possibly a thousand during her lifetime. The eggs, as we 

 know from Dr. Packard's studies, hatch in about one day, 

 the larvas grow for five to seven days, and the pupal 

 stage is also from five to seven days. Thus in* ten to 

 fourteen days a generation of flies may be produced, and 



62 



