HEALTH NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1931, Page 7

HEALTH NOTES

THE FLY.

?HOUSEHOLD PEST. (Contributed by the Department of Health.) The fly is undoubtedly the commonest and most widely spread of all insects. The house-fly is found in nearly all parts of the world, but seldom in places where there are no human habitations. It consists of a beau, thorax and abdomen. On the head are several thousand eyes, it is believed, However, that it depends more on its sense of smell than its vision in finding its food. ft sucks the food up through a tube, called a proboscis, attached to the under portion of .the head. The wings are fastened to the thorax. There are three pairs of legs covered rather thickly with coarse hair. The common house fly cannot bite. Other varieties of flies such as the stable fly do and can bite, and their mouth parts are modified accordingly. Flies are extremely prolific. The eggs are deposited in batches in fresh horse manure, kitchen refuse, decayed vegetables, human excreta, putrifying animal matter, or any other kind of organic filth. In such substances the proper ' temperature, moisture, and food for fly propagation is found. Their number increases very rapidly, as a fly is fully developed in 8 or 10 days after birth and each fo male is capable of laying 100 or more eggs. The eggs are smooth, -white, glistening bodies. Under favourable circumstances they are transformed into larvae or maggots within 12 hours. They reach maturity in from three to six days and leave the substance in which they are hatched and burrow into the ground or travel several feet ahum its surface. A contraction of the maggot now occurs; it changes to n dark colour, and is known as pupa. On this stage the wings and other structures of the full grown insect at tain their full development, and in about three days the adult fly breaks through the sack and escapes .

Habits. Tlie fly is a constant guest at our tables. Substances intended for human consumption should be protected from flies, as these insects may carry the parasites of micro-organisms of disease in their bodies from places where such agents abound. Flies have been implicated in the spread of dise.ases like typhoid fever, endemic diarrhoea, dysentery, etc. It is considered that flies may spread the infection in summer of endemic diarrhoea. which is such a serious disease in children. Contrcl. , In order to eradicate tile fly it is necessary to do away with its breeth ing places. Refuses should not be allowed to remain about the premises. All sanitary arrangements should be kept clean. Horse and cow manure should be frequently swept up and deposited in a manure bin. Such manure should be removed at least every four days as but four days are required from the time the eggs are deposited until the maggots begin to migrate from the manure heap into the ground to continue their development into the full-grown flies. Another method of preventing the breeding of flies in manure is of spraying with such a solution as coal tar, sheep dip. or with an emulsion of crude -tar oil and soap. On the home every endeavour should be made to kill flies by the use of fly traps, sticky papers, etc. A useful solution is to add an ounce of formalin to a- pint of water and milk, and expose in dishes about the room.