Studies on the Filth Flies at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Douglas Lake, Michigan-Summer 1954

Abstract

The relationship of flies, particularly those which are attracted to decaying organic matter for feeding and/or breeding purposes, to pathogenic organisms of man has long been established. During the 1940's some such flies were shown by various investigators to be naturally infected with the virus of poliomyelitis. This virus-fly relationship, and later the consideration given to the possibility of the intentional introduction of certain fly-borne 'diseases, led to the investigation of the nature of the total fly population of various communities and urban fly control was greatly stimuated. As an outgrowth of such investigations new biological facts regarding some of these flies has come to light (Williams, 1954). The present study was undertaken to determine what species of flies at the University of Michigan Biological Station, in Cheboygan County, Michigan, are commonly attracted to decomposing fish; the percent of the total population represented by each species; species population peaks in time; and species preference as to local habitat, whether near the kitchen close to the human food supply or whether on the beach where an occasional dead fish washed onto the shore attracted many flies and where these flies were at times most disconcerting to those people living in beach cabins.