The House-Fly and Its Near Relations 



writer at Washington indicate that by cleanly measures in stables, 

 by the daily collection of the manure and placing it in a closed 

 pit or closet or by treating it at intervals of a week with chlorid 

 of lime, the house-fly nuisance can be greatly abated and thus 

 the disease danger largely avoided. 



There is a general impression that house-flies sometimes bite 

 people, but this is entirely wrong. Their mouth parts are fitted for 

 sucking and lapping up liquids, and not for piercing. The 

 stable-fly mentioned in a previous paragraph is, however, a bit- 

 ing one, and it looks so much like a house-fly that one almost 

 has to let it bite before finding out whether it is a house-fly or 

 not. The stable-fly is seldom found in houses except just before 

 a rain, and then it comes in at the open windows. From this 

 fact arises the old saying, " Flies begin to bite before a rain." It 

 has been asked why flies seem to prefer windows and looking- 

 glasses, but the answer is simple enough : when they are on the 

 windows they want to get out; when they are on looking- 

 glasses they are mistaking them for windows. 



Sometimes when a house-fly is examined it will be seen to 

 be fairly covered with little reddish objects which are really living 

 creatures. They are parasitic mites which attach themselves to 

 the bodies of house-flies and certain other insects and inserting 

 their long beaks suck their juices. It is comforting to think that 

 the house-fly has these parasites which torment him so. Such 

 retribution is just. And there is another comforting fact : house- 

 flies die of fungus diseases. Sometimes, especially in the fall, 

 flies will be found behind the picture-frames or in rather dark 

 places, covered with a gray, fur-like substance, which is the 

 manifestation of the fungus disease which has killed it. Then, 

 too, dead flies will be seen with their bodies swollen and appear- 

 ing more or less striped. These also have been killed by another 

 fungus disease. These epidemic diseases cease in December, and 

 although many thousands of house-flies are killed by them, the 

 remarkable rapidity of development in the early summer months 

 soon more than replaces the thousands thus destroyed. 



If we could only get our boards of health in cities to attack 

 the house-fly question and to insist on the proper disposal and 

 treatment of horse manure the insect would soon become scarce, 

 and perhaps its agency in the spread of disease will induce these 

 officials to look into the matter. It is a noticeable fact that 



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