nik newark

Facts about flies

It has been a hot few days, and, as happens when it is hot, there seem to suddenly be lots of buzzy houseflies all over the place. They are everywhere. So common they are, that it is difficult to believe that as recently as the early 1928 the common housefly was on the endangered species list. Indeed, in the late 1800s, they were almost wiped out altogether, such was the Victorian passion for fly swatting, It's true; Victorian men would take a pride in their swatting abilities, and would keep fly-free homes, and whole communities would work to ensure that their streets were free of flies. In some communities, the Victorian men would take a break from abusing young boys up chimneys and taking snuff, and would instead wander about on the moors, blasting flies with shotguns. All of this had a decimating effect on the fly population, and by 1906, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the then Prime Minister of the UK made the common housefly an endangered species. Of course, this didn't deter the bloodlust of the men (no longer technically Victorian, but they still had moustaches and wasitcoats, and loved to kill flies more than almost anything else), who had just invented flypaper (actually discovered by accident - the Scotsman Hughie McShane was apparently trying to invent the Post-It note at the time), and had no intention of stopping their killing spree right now.
So, if it wasn't the protection order that saved the flies, what was it? It was, of course, the war. All of the men of England were despatched overseas to live in the ditches of Flanders for a few years (“it looked nothing like it did in the brochure”), and whilst there, they rather forgot about their passion for flies, and instead were rather preoccupied with bagging a few Jerries. Furthermore, the British Isles, now largely stripped of its murderous menfolk, was now a safe haven for flies of all varieties, and over 5 long summers they bred until they became the most populous creatures in the land. Which brings us up to the current day.
So, next time you are annoyed by flies, just remember that if it hadn't been for WW1, we'd probably be rid of them by now.