Posts Tagged: fly

Fly on a Rose Petal

Poet Gertrude Stein wrote in her 1913 poem, "Sacred Emily," that  "a rose is a rose is a rose."

Things are what they are. The laws of identity. No matter where I go, there I am.

When I captured this photo last Sunday of a fly on a rose petal, I immediately thought "A fly is a fly is a fly."

Not to an entomologist.

The common house fly (Musca domestica Linnaeus) commonly breeds in manure, compost piles and dumpsters.

The housefly is known to transfer at least 100 different pathogens, and carry about 6.6 million  bacteria on its body at a single time, according to UC Davis forensic entomologist and fly expert Robert Kimsey.  It's responsible for transmitting both parasitic and bacterial pathogens as well as viruses. Among them: typhoid, cholera and dysentery (bacterial diseases) and infective hepatitis (virus).

It's enough to make you "stop and fell the roses."

Fly on a Rose

FLY ON A ROSE--We're accustomed to seeing insects on roses, but not flies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Flies 'n Superbugs

It wasn't too surprising.

Reuters posted a story online today about flies spreading drug-resistant "superbugs" from chicken droppings.

Seems that researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,  Baltimore, matched bacteria from houseflies and litter from poultry barns in the Delmarva Peninsula, a coastal region shared by Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

They published their findings in the journal Science of the Total Environment 

Pesearcher Jay Graham said in a John Hopkins' press release: "Flies are well-known vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans, including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and shigellosis. Our study found similarities in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria i both the flies and poultry litter we simpled. The evidence is another example of the risks associated withthe inadequate treatment of animal wastes."

They cited a Danish study that indicated as many as 30,000 flies can fly in and out of a poultry house over a six-week period.

The take-home message: The increase in antibiotic-resistant baceria poses a major threat to public health.

UC Davis forensic entomologist and "super fly" expert Bob Kimsey told us last October that the common housefly, which breeds in manure, compost piles and dumpsters,  is known to transfer at least 100 different pathogens and carry about 6.6 million bacteria on its body at a single time. It transmits both parastic and bacterial pathogens as well as viruses.

 Makes you want to join the "swat team."

Lone Fly

A LONE FLY visits a flower in the Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum, on Feb. 27, 2009. The common housefly is known to transfer at least 100 different pathogens and carry about 6.6 million bacteria on its body at a single time, according to UC Davis forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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