It’s a little off the beaten path for this website, but as I write this I’m sitting outside and grilling up some brats for later consumption. Just a bit ago I grilled a couple little steaks for my supper, now I’m grilling for tomorrow. (Living by myself, it just makes sense to grill several things at once when I drag out my charcoal grill.)
The last couple times I’ve done this, I’ve noticed that the fly population in these parts seems to be exploding. I also saw this last night at a gathering I attended with some friends – it just seemed that the flies were more numerous than I’d seen before.
If you’re not familiar with the area from where I write my website, our economy depends in large part of the raising and production of broiler chickens. Chances are you’ve heard of Perdue’s brand of chicken…well, I live within walking distance of their headquarters and not far from there is one of Perdue’s many processing plants. Obviously all that animal waste is quite the draw for flies, although Perdue does try to minimize its effects as much as they can.
Similarly, the other chicken processors in the area seem to be pretty good about taking care of their waste products. In part this is required by the states of Delaware and Maryland, but I think the main reason is just to be good neighbors to those who live and work in my adopted hometown and its surrounding area.
So I can’t see this as a reason why the flies are so numerous, as the chicken plants have been operating for years and serve as a constant in my search for a cause. Nor is it something which is caused by my neighbors since we generally keep tidy yards and for the most part subscribe to various refuse collection services who provide us with the large, 90 gallon trash cans with attached lids.
This leaves two possible factors: one being weather and the other being a possible food source which I haven’t accounted in my figurings. This summer has been relatively normal insofar as I can tell, perhaps a bit rainier than the average. (Seemingly the rain comes according to our baseball schedule because I’ve been to probably 10 Delmarva Shorebirds games this season during which I’ve been rained on to one degree or another, not counting the games that never got underway because of rain or wet grounds.) However, while rainy weather does tend to bring out mosquitoes I haven’t been tormented by them this summer, even when I forget the repellent.
I’m beginning to wonder then if it’s not a problem of society that is increasing the housefly population. This may sound quite odd, so let me explain.
Our society is a throwaway society. It’s not every day that I have to do this, but a couple times a week I have to pick up some sort of trash which came out of a car driving along the road in front of my house. Living on a state highway there’s plenty of traffic and not everyone is conscientious about not littering. Then there’s the much larger highway that runs about 1/4 mile from my house which also attracts the debris of modern society – pop and beer cans, plastic containers, bags from fast food restaurants, and the like. With more and more people consuming food on the run, maybe the cumulative effect is increasing the fly population and decreasing the enjoyment I derive from eating al fresco.
So I’m kind of curious about whether this is a problem that others in far-flung regions of the country are encountering this summer or if it’s just those of us on the Delmarva Peninsula who seem to be constantly shooing off the pesky little critters. In the meantime, I’m going to have to remember when I stop by the store tomorrow to buy a couple no-pest strips.
