134 HOUSEHOLD PESTS AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM 



How to get rid of flies. In order to rid our houses of 

 these pests it is necessary to know something about the 

 habits of flies. Flies commonly breed in manure, but 

 sometimes in garbage which has been allowed to stand 

 in uncovered cans and in rotting masses of paper and other 

 rubbish, provided it is moist. A fly does not take more 

 than ten days to complete its life history in warm weather. 

 The eggs hatch in about eight hours into maggots. 



These whitish 

 wormlike animals 

 burrow into the 

 manure pile and 

 there after six or 

 seven days become 

 brown pupae, and 

 hatch out three 

 days later as adult 

 flies. Since an 

 adult fly lays 

 about one hun- 

 dred and fifty eggs 

 at a time, and about one half of all flies are females, it is not 

 difficult to estimate how many flies might come from one pair 

 in a season. Hodge has estimated that within three months 

 the offspring from one fly would amount to 143,675 bushels 

 of flies. If these figures are correct, it is evident that 

 " swatting the fly " or using screens will not do much good 

 unless the flies are " swatted " early in the season when there 

 are not very many which have lived through the winter. 

 Evidently the best things to do are to destroy the breeding 

 places of flies and to trap as many as possible. All manure 

 heaps should be worked over and scattered at least once 



Life history of house flies, showing from left to right the 

 eggs, larvae, pupae, and adult flies. (Photograph about 

 natural size, by Overton.) 



