A Plague on A Farm

House Flies (Musca Domestica)

            I hated flies as a child on the farm where at times there were swarms of them and I hate them even more now as an old man.   Should a fly land on my food, I no longer feel like eating.   I will scoop out its landing spot and force myself to eat.   The modern farm houses are almost fly proof these days but with all those animals on the farm, it is still a battle.   Here in Port Elizabeth we have a neighbour who never picks up his dog’s droppings but leaves it for a garden man about once a month.   What a pity that a fly can fly over garden walls!!!

House flies are one of the most common insects that plague man especially on farms.   They are often a nuisance in residential homes as well in commercial areas.   They are the biggest problem in restaurants and commercial kitchens.   Aside from their nuisance factor, house flies carry numerous diseases and germs.

House flies breed in fresh horse manure, garbage, human excretion, cow manure, and rotting vegetable matter. Their larvae are small white maggots, which pupate and emerge into flies. Their life cycle under the right conditions is complete in six days with 10-12 generations per summer. 

       The poor housewife had an endless battle fighting these pests with fly traps, sticky fly paper and a Flit Spray Pump.   There was a blown glass fly trap with the bottom trough filled with a mixture of milk, water and arsenic or mercury chloride.   Sticky fly paper does work, but is most useful when fly populations are low.  

Flypaper is a fly-killing device made of paper coated with a sweetly fragrant, but extremely sticky or poisonous substance that traps flies and other flying insects when they land upon it.   It is as effective as many other methods involving insecticides or bug zappers.    However, a twisted strip of flypaper hanging from the ceiling is considered by many to be aesthetically less acceptable than some other methods, and so flypaper is not as commonly used as it once was.   Some formulas for flypaper also have a slight but potentially disagreeable odor.   Handling and disposing of flypaper can be awkward because it is so sticky

            People who could afford it, had screen doors made to fit on the outside of their doors and on the windows screen frames were also fitted.   What more can I say than what is said on the Internet other than the most beautiful milk jug cosies or covers were made and always used.   There were also large net covers which would be used over tea tables.  

 The keeping of bantam fowls where animals dropped their business, was a great way of preventing maggots from becoming flies.   These little fowls were scratchers who could plough through all that poo day after day.

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