HEALTH

NEW HAVEN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Vol. LIV, No. 4	April, 1927

This article excerpted from p. 8 of the issue.

Who is called the "messenger of death?" None other than the common fly who lives with us in our homes, eats off our tables, annoys us while we read, and amuses the children.

Why brand this common and widespread insect with such a vile name? Because its befouled body and legs may carry germs of typhoid and other diseases from infected filth to healthy persons.

Flies are the most active of all insects. They eat practically all kinds of vegetable and animal matter and lay their eggs wherever they feed. They have hairy legs and little sticky pads on their feet which will take up hundreds of germs.

When the fly enters our homes and passes to our tables it literally "wipes its feet" on our food. A single fly is capable in this way of infecting human food. So frequently is the fly responsible for the spread of typhoid fever in this manner that it has been called the "typhoid fly."

Flies normally begin to breed in June and July, the greatest activity in this respect being in the months of August and September. Flies are bred from eggs in twelve days in the warm weather. Each female fly lays approximately 150 eggs at a time. It has been calculated that in a single season the progeny of one pair of flies may be 8,000,000!

The life cycle of a fly is as follows: First the egg, then the "maggot", then the full grown fly. The common house fly does not grow-it is born that way. The maggot lives in the worst of filth but the fly which develops from the maggot and eats of that filth and crawls over it may be an unbidden guest at our table. While stopping to feed in its aerial journey it may deposit typhoid germs on our butter or in our milk and these germs may cause typhoid fever in our bodies two weeks later.

If there are no filth piles there will be no places in which flies can breed. Without breeding places there can be no flies. However, it is practically impossible to prevent the breeding of flies. So let's start a war against them. Now is the appointed time. Let's adopt as our slogan: "Kill that Fly." Let's teach that slogan to our children. Let's remember that one fly killed now may mean 8,000,000 less flies next summer.