Flies

Did you ever have a small child point to an insect and ask 'What is it'? The reply would naturally be 'its a fly', as the parent hurridly sought a fly swatter or a folded newspaper to swat the pesky thing.

This little child should have lived about seventy-five or more years ago. In those days very few homes had screen doors or windows, particularly in the country. I know there will be many readers who can still remember the swarms of flies that used to infest the country homes each summer. It was not unusual to find flies in many homes in the winter, especially in the warmest room of the house-the kitchen.

I remember hearing many stories about the flies being so thick in the homes that one member's job at meal time was to stand by the table with a short stick on which many streamers of paper or rags were tied. This had to be continually waved over the table and those sitting around it to keep the flies from landing on the food as well as the individuals about the table.

Later, screen wire was sold in country stores to cover the windows and screen doors could be purchased as well as wire cages to catch them. A bait was placed in the center to draw them inside and when the cage was nearly full then boiling water was poured over it to kill them. The cage could be set on the old cook stove for a few minutes but the odor from the burning flies was not too pleasant. Nearly every home had several of these traps.

Then came along the poison fly paper, usually in black sheets. A small part of a sheet would be soaked in water and placed in a dish for the flies to settle upon. The dish was always placed out of the reach of children. Within a short time dead flies could be swept from the floor. There were many housewives who did not bother to sweep the floors but preferred to allow the young chickens to come in and eat them.

Another method of catching flies was the fly paper. You could buy two double sheets for a nickle. This product consisted of two sheets of paper each containing a very sticky substance. When a fly lit on it it was stuck permanently. These sheets were usually placed on top of sinks, tables and sometimes on the doors. When they were filled with the bodies of flies they were placed in the fire in the old kitchen range.

Many kitchens also had long sticky ribbons tacked to the ceiling to catch the pesky insect. Many a housewife, not looking where she was working often found her hair stuck to one of these ribbons. Surprisingly, these ribbons can still be purchased. It's been years since we have seen the poison fly paper and the sticky paper. Perhaps they have disappeared due to the many insect sprays now on the market.

When we were kids one could go to a store and buy a fly swatter made of a six inch square screen wire fastened to a wooden handle. Sometimes children were assigned the job of using this instrument to exterminate the flies that managed to enter the house when some member had to open the screen door to go outside or to enter the home. Flies were everywhere. No home escaped them. Some housewives would tie a small daisy-like plant, called fleabane to the screen door. They discovered the flies did not like the odor of this plant. Many times small balls of cotton would be seen tied to the screen. Whether this acted as a deterrent we have no way of knowing.

Perhaps one may wonder where the flies came from when they were so numerous in the old farm homes. We must remember that seventy or more years ago they did not have the chemicals that we have today. It is true that there were numerous disinfectants the property owner could buy but they were not the insect killer we have now. There were the barns, the big pens and yards as well as numerous places where these flies multiplied and as they hatched they caught the tantalizing odors from the kitchens. James Whitcomb Riley in his poem 'The Passing of the Old Country Backhouse' wrote "All day the fat spiders spun their webs to catch the buzzing flies that flitted to and from the house where Ma was baking pies". Here he described natures first fly catcher.

Today, we still find a few flies in some homes but they cannot be compared to the fly infested homes of long ago.