256 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
July, 1909 
Monthly Comment 
The Campaign against the House-fly 
HE end of the house-fly is at hand. Scien- 
tists and educators, merchants and _ house- 
wives, observers and sufferers, each and all 
have risen as a mighty host against the 
intrusions of the obnoxious insect, and de- 
clared, in the loudest possible tones, and 
with the utmost vehemence of. scientific 
fact, the destruction and extinction of this annoying and 
dangerous creature. ‘There remains, in short, but one thing 
to do, and that is to carry out the fulminations of science 
on this important subject, and the flyless age will then be- 
come a happy, sanitary and healthful fact. 
THERE is no poetry in accomplishing the destruction of 
the house-fly; there is no heroism to be displayed, no great 
prizes in authorship or other rewards to be gained by bring- 
ing it about. The peoples of two worlds do not hang 
breathless upon the rifle shots with which its epidermis is 
pierced, and its rapidly moving body laid a dead carcass 
upon the earth. No costly scientific expeditions are needed 
to bring about the end now so ardently desired and so elo- 
quently argued. ‘There is nothing, in a word, but common 
sense, care and caution, and the battle will be won, and the 
human race once more assert its supremacy over the forces of 
nature. 
YeET the battles that must be waged against this foe of 
every household are by no means few, nor is the conflict that 
must be conducted an easy one. It is a campaign in which 
the energies of every one must be engaged. Not only must 
each individual home be protected against this ancient enemy 
of mankind, but every home everywhere, every building, 
every store, every place where food is bought and sold. 
Every spot where flies originate or make their homes must 
be cleaned up and kept clean. It is a work worthy of the 
energies of a united nation. 
H 
' Twat there are many practical difficulties in the conduct 
of this campaign is no argument against engaging in it. It 
is work that should be done and that must be done, and since 
it is something in which every one can help, every one should 
do so and make his own individual contribution to the gen- 
eral cause. And this should be the more eagerly done, 
since there is an individual good that comes from effort put 
forth in this direction, a personal betterment, a household 
advantage. From the beginning of time mankind has sub- 
mitted unresistingly to the ravages of the house-fly. An 
insect incapable of stinging or biting, it has been looked upon 
as an unavoidable accompaniment of the summer season, an 
annoying nuisance, it is true, but something that comes and 
goes with the season, and against which only half-hearted 
efforts have, at the best, been directed. 
ALL this has now been changed. A vigorous campaign 
against the house-fly is now under way. Generaled by 
scientists, marshaled by ascertained fact, helped by the public 
press, and assisted by the common sense of, the people, a 
great army of exterminators has now taken the field, and the 
battle ison. And the first gun that has been fired is a mighty 
one, exceedingly clever in its inventiveness and involving an 
obnoxious fact of terrible significance. It is, in brief, a very 
simple and necessary change in nomenclature. The hcuse- 
fly has been retired, and, as a more descriptive and truthful 
name, the dread title of “‘typhoid-fly” has been substituted. 
Ir is not, indeed, a new title. As far back as 1897, Dr. 
Wallace Clarke, health officer of Utica, N. Y., attributed 
the cause of typhoid to fly transmission. Other observers 
noted the same suggestion, but the actual and definite renam- 
ing of the household pest appears to be due to Dr. L. O. 
Howard, entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, 
at Washington, who, in 1902, showed that the fly was a 
potent factor in the transmission of typhoid in country dis- 
tricts. And now that the connection has been shown, one 
does not need to be either a specialist or scientist to observe 
the horrid truths that must be laid at the door of this insect, 
nor should it seem necessary for any other instruction to be 
given than to call attention to the dreadful creature and its 
habits. That flies swarm around and amid filth has long 
been one of the most frequently observed facts in insect 
history. Dirt of every kind attracts flies, and wherever filth 
and waste of every description is to be found there flies are 
also abundant. From the nauseating feeding grounds with- 
out the house it is but a short flight to the more cleanly 
luxuries indoors. The researches into the interiors of sugar 
bowls, the promenades across the tops of cakes, the sojourns 
upon raw and cooked meats, even the attempts at repose 
upon human beings—these and many other dissipations of 
flydom are now known and recognized as the forerunners of 
a fell disease that numbers its annual victims by the thou- 
sands, with a cost and waste quite beyond ordinary calcu- 
lation. 
THE danger lies in the repulsive contact of the fly and in 
its indiscriminate associations. All this has long been a mat- 
ter of common knowledge; but the fatal results to humanity 
of these habits has been less well known, and the strength 
of the present campaign lies in bringing these truths home 
to every householder. This campaign is being well con- 
ducted. A multitude of agencies are involved in it, and 
it would rightly seem as though little more than continued 
effort were needed to bring it to a successful conclusion. And 
this would be true enough were it not that the fly is itself 
wholly unconscious of the new dread it has established in 
the minds of its human victims. The fly can not be abolished 
by law nor by the dissemination of scientific information 
concerning it. Its extinction may not be looked for, but its 
suppression is, in large measure, readily accomplishable. 
VARIOUS agencies have, from time to time, issued some 
simple rules for dealing with the fly nuisance. Those put 
forth by the Merchants’ Association of New York are well 
worth reproduction. The chief of them are as follows: 
Keep the flies away from the sick, especially those ill 
with contagious diseases. Kill every fly that strays into the 
sick room. 
Do not allow the accumulation of decaying matter of any 
sort. 
All refuse that tends to fermentation should be disposed 
of or covered with lime or kerosene. 
Screen all food. 
Keep all receptacles for garbage covered and can cleaned 
or sprinkled with oil or lime. Follow same treatment for 
stable manure in vaults or pits. 
Keep sewage system in good condition; pour kerosene into 
the drains. | 
Screen all windows and doors; burn pyrethrum powder in 
tae house to kill the flies. 
Clean up and keep out dirt of every kind everywhere. 
