The House Fly and How to Suppress It

The House Fly and How to
Suppress It, by

L. O. Howard and F. C. Bishopp This eBook is for the use of anyone
anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You
may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org
Title: The House Fly and How to Suppress It U. S. Department of
Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin No. 1408
Author: L. O. Howard and F. C. Bishopp
Release Date: March 26, 2006 [EBook #18050]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
HOUSE FLY AND HOW TO ***

Produced by K.D. Thornton and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FARMERS' BULLETIN No. 1408
The HOUSE FLY AND HOW TO SUPPRESS IT
[Illustration: fly]
[Illustration: USDA seal]

The presence of flies is an indication of uncleanliness, insanitary
conditions, and improper disposal of substances in which they breed.
They are not only annoying; they are actually dangerous to health,
because they may carry disease germs to exposed foods.
It is therefore important to know where and how they breed, and to
apply such knowledge in combating them. This bulletin gives
information on this subject. Besides giving directions for ridding the
house of flies by the use of screens, fly papers, poisons, and flytraps, it
lays especial emphasis on the explanation of methods of eliminating
breeding places and preventing the breeding of flies.
This bulletin supersedes Farmers' Bulletin 851.
Washington, D. C. Issued April, 1925; revised November, 1926

THE HOUSE FLY[1] AND HOW TO SUPPRESS IT.
By L. O. HOWARD, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, and F. C.
BISHOPP, Entomologist.
* * * * *
CONTENTS. Page. Kinds of flies found in houses 1 Where the true
house fly lays its eggs 2 How the house fly passes the winter 6 Carriage
of disease by the house fly 6 Excluding and capturing flies 7 The use of
screens 7 Fly papers and poisons 8 Fly sprays 8 Flytraps 9 Preventing
the breeding of flies 9 Construction and care of stables 9 Fly-tight

manure pits 10 Frequency with which manure should be removed in
cities and towns 10 Health office regulations for control of house flies
in cities 10 Disposal of manure in rural and suburban districts 11
Chemical treatment of manure to destroy fly maggots 12 Maggot trap
for destruction of fly larvæ from horse manure 13 Compact heaping of
manure 15 Garbage disposal and treatment of miscellaneous breeding
places 15 Sewage disposal in relation to the prevention of fly-borne
diseases 15 What communities can do to eliminate the house fly 16
* * * * *
KINDS OF FLIES FOUND IN HOUSES.
Several species of flies are found commonly in houses. Some of them
so closely resemble the true house fly that it requires very careful
observation to distinguish them from it.
One of these is the biting stable fly[2] (fig. 1). It occurs frequently in
houses and differs from the house fly in the important particular that its
mouth parts are formed for piercing the skin. This fly is so often
mistaken for the house fly that most people think that the house fly can
bite.
Another frequent visitant of houses, particularly in the spring and fall,
is the cluster fly.[3] It is somewhat larger than the house fly, and is
distinguished by its covering of fine yellowish hairs. Occasionally this
fly occurs in houses in such numbers as to cause great annoyance. It
gets its name of "cluster fly" from its habit of collecting in compact
groups or clusters in protected corners during cold periods.
Several species of metallic greenish or bluish flies also are found
occasionally in houses. These include a blue-bottle fly,[4] the black
blowflies,[5] and the green-bottle (fig. 2) flies.[6] They breed in
decaying animal matter.
[Footnote 1: Musca domestica L.] [Footnote 2: Stomoxys calcitrans L.]
[Footnote 3: Pollenia rudis Fab.] [Footnote 4: Calliphora
erythrocephala Meig.] [Footnote 5: Phormia regina Meig. and P.

terrae-novae Desv.] [Footnote 6: Lucilia caesar L., L. sericata Meig.,
and other species of the genus.]
There is still another species, smaller than any of those so far
mentioned, which is sometimes called the "lesser house fly."[7] This
insect is distinguished from the ordinary house fly by its paler and more
pointed body. The male, which is commoner than the female, has large
pale patches at the base of the abdomen, which are translucent when the
fly is seen on the window pane. These little flies are not the young of
the larger flies. Flies do not grow after the wings have once expanded
and dried.
[Footnote 7: Fannia canicularis L.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--The stable fly. Much enlarged.]
[Illustration: FIG.