Nearly everyone would agree that flies are among the most bothersome of nuisance household pests. Even having one single fly in your home can be enough to drive a homeowner crazy. Many people are also aware that flies are pretty disgusting creatures, but few are aware of just how disgusting flies can be within a home. Flies regurgitate blood and feces on surfaces, including table tops and food. Flies visit filthy locations for breeding and life-sustaining purposes. Flies prefer to dwell on feces, decaying food and garbage, and the flies people find indoors may have spent time in these filthy conditions. Flies are considered mechanical disease vectors due to the disease-causing microbes they bring indoors from these filthy areas. Indoor flies also make all of the food items that they land on a potential source of human disease. The most serious threat posed by indoor flies is their ability to spread pathogens, especially pathogens that lead to intestinal problems.
Common houseflies and other fly species are the most significant causes of dysentery in all regions of the world, and every year flies are responsible for thousands of deaths, particularly children in impoverished areas. Even in more affluent areas flies can still become a problem, but flies are rarely anything more than a nuisance in upscale neighborhoods. Flies often become a problem in urban areas that are located near agricultural centers where manure and compost is abundant. This leads to many lawsuits filed against businesses that see a large amount of flies for this reason. Whenever an urban landscape expands into suburban or rural areas, lawsuits of this kind are bound to occur. Agricultural business that are responsible for attracting flies see most of these lawsuits, but “right-to-farm” laws protect agricultural businesses from such lawsuits, but other businesses to not enjoy this same protection. For example, medically-related lawsuits are sometimes filed in response to fly infestations within hospitals. However, this is a more significant issue in Africa and South America than it is in the United States, but it is not uncommon for nursing homes to become infested with copious amounts of flies.
Have you ever found insects within a hospital?