Some practical methods adopted for the control of flies in the Egyptian Campaign

Extract

The control of flies is a serious problem in the Egyptian Campaign. In desert camps flies develop at an extraordinary rate, unless rigid sanitary precautions are taken. In native villages they seem to be taken as a matter of course, and it is a common sight to see fruit and food of all kinds, in shops and on street-vendors' carts, swarming with flies. Small children suffering from conjunctivitis are seen in the streets with their eyes thickly covered with flies. Flies of the house-fly type (Musca) are the most troublesome, although blue-bottles (Calliphora), green-bottles (Lucilia) and Sarcophaga are found. These latter are often met with in the desert in the small clumps of palm trees known as “ hods.”