Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1896 — All About Flies. [ARTICLE]

All About Flies.

Enter now the fly season. What a lot of human misery these insects are accountable for. If nil the flies in the world could be exterminated it would be a gront blessing to mankind. They do some good ns scavengers, but that is far overbalanced by the harm they do, apart from the discomfort they occasion. There is no doubt that they carry diseases from one person to another, aud so help to spread epidemics. Eye complaints nre propagated by a certain small species of flies. A fly of this sort will alight on an Individual with an eye trouble and tnke some of the germs off with him and deposit them on the next unfortunate person he settles ui>on. Flies also convey Infection from sores. Mrs. Fly lays her eggs in warm refuse or in decaying vegetable matter. The heat hatches these eggs and a lot of maggots nre brought Into the world. After a few days they reach the pupa stage, and from the pupa emerge shortly afterwards the perfect winged flics. Thus these pests are generally bred In stables, which accounts for most people’s great objection to living near them. When the young flies are full fledged they fly off und enter any doors nnd windows which are left incautiously open, and worry the inmates. Flies ordinarily live about three weeks. The first cold weather kills most of them, Just enough living through the winter to propagate their species. A few of the most sturdy of the females live through each winter and in the spring lay eggs before dying and so continue their kind. They remain torpid during the cold weather in nooks and crannies, which accounts for the fact that they do not bother the human race except in summer. There are glnnts and pigmies among flies, Just as there are in the human race. Everybody has noticed how much smaller some flies are than others. It is commonly supposed that these little ones are the young, but such Is not the case. A fly does not grow at all after it has reached the Winged state. It attains its full growth in the larvae stage, as do all other Insects. There is a popular notion that flies have suckers on their feet which enable them to walk on the walls and ceilings. This, like many other generally accepted theories, is not the case. They have no suckers on their feet at all, but have a pair of little cushions and two t hooks on the \jottom of each foot. The cushions are covered with lots of knobbed hairs nnd kept moist by an exuding fluid, thus enabling the fly to walk on the ceiling or window pane, the moist, hairy pads adhering to the smooth surface. They have six legs, which gives them a large surface for sticking on to things. The twelve hooks on their feet they use when they are obliged to travel over rough surfaces such as whitewashed walls or cloths, the hooks enabling them to hold on to the little irregularities.