Fig. 44. Flies go from filth to food.
How to get rid of the fly:
How are we going to get rid of flies? We cannot get rid of them entirely, but there are a great many ways by which we can prevent there being so many of them, and whereby we may keep them out of our houses and away from our food.
(1) By removal of manure
We have learned that flies are always found about horse manure, because it makes a good place in which to hatch their eggs. If we could dispose of the manure, there would be one place less for the fly to lay her eggs. Behind barns we usually find piles of manure. It is in these heaps that the fly lays her eggs, not in the little lumps found in the streets. Now, there is no sense in keeping this great pile of manure about any barn. In towns the manure can be put into a box with a cover, so that the flies cannot get at it. In the country every well-managed farm has the barns cleaned out every day, and it would not be much more trouble for the farmer to throw the manure into a wagon and take it to the fields with him, than it is to pile it up beside his barn. If he did this, he would find that there would be few flies about his house.
(2) By covering garbage cans
Even if we were to take every particle of manure away as fast as possible, we should still have some flies, for when flies do not find manure for their hatching places, they will take the next best thing. It must be something dirty; clean things will not answer at all for a fly's home. Next to the manure pile, the fly likes a dirty garbage can, a dead animal, or anything that is decomposing. If she cannot find anything better, she will take a rotting apple; but she does not really like this, and if she cannot find anything better than an old apple in your yard, she will probably go elsewhere to lay her eggs.
(3) By keeping clean yards
We cannot entirely stop the hatching of flies, but if we do away with the old manure piles, keep fresh manure and garbage cans covered, and keep our yards free from everything that can decompose, we shall have very few flies about our houses.