Written By: Pavitra Sampath | Published : April 7, 2015 7:34 PM IST
Flies, a menace and highly irritating pest, these critters can cause a lot more damage than you can imagine. Interestingly, the common house fly is capable of transmitting over 60 different diseases like dysentery, typhoid,cholera and gastroenteritis. While you might know that keeping flies away from your home is an essential step to having a clean home, here's why it is actually important.
They cause a variety of diseases: While the WHO says that flies do not cause ailments by themselves flies carry organisms that can cause diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera, intestinal parasite infection, eye infections (trachoma and epidemic conjunctivitis), and skin infections. This is because they can feed on human food, animal by products (such as their dung, their rotting flesh, etc.) and then transfer these organisms to your food by walking over it.
Flies feed on your waste and garbage: Flies feed on all kinds of garbage, human food, excreta, animal dung, sugar, milk, blood, meat and meat broth and even sweat. But what makes this entire scenario worse is the fact that when flies feed they regurgitate a kind of enzyme from their stomach (also known as their crop) that liquidises the food that they then suck up in liquid form. What really makes this the worst fact about flies is that while the harmful organisms on their outer body can survive only for a few hours, those in their gut can survive for several days, making these pests highly capable of causing food borne illnesses.
Your home is a ripe breeding ground for fly colonies: Female flies deposit their eggs on rotting, fermenting, decayed and other organic material that then hatch fairly quickly to infest the area. Incidentally garbage is their mainstay when it comes to choosing a breeding ground, and since your garbage usually contains vegetable, meat and other wastes it helps the fly thrive.
Even if they don't feed their feet can spread infectious organisms: The feet of house flies pick up bacteria from the feces and garbage they walk on, and since it is their main sensory organ flies walk on everything. This in turn transfers bacteria, parasites and fungus from their feet to the other surfaces they sit on such as food, hands, vessels or clothes -- making spreading the infection that much easier.
Image source: Shutter Stock
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