Gail Picker, aged 10, of Tuscon, AZ

How can a fly walk on the ceiling?

The fly is a suspicious fellow, He won't let you sneak up and study him through a magnifying glass. He is, of course, a criminal. . And like all criminals he is mighty shy of being fingerprinted. In order to see how he manages to walk upside down on the ceiling we need to get a close look at his feet. For it la these special feet that make the trick possible.

However, enlarged pictures of his feet have been taken. A look at one of any of his six legs will show how he does his amazing acrobatics. Each leg ends in a pair of claws, rather like briar thorns. The underside of the foot is a paddy paw. Further study shows the pad to be sticky. It is also covered with fine hairs ‑ sticky hairs.

Now the house fly is small and light. He is abort a quarter of an inch long and his entire wingspread is no more than half an inch. He weighs about a thousandth part of an ounce, Six, or even four, of his sticky feet are enough to fix such a, little bit of a thing to the ceiling.

This we can understand. But how can he walk along in such a position? How can he run up and down the sides of a wall? In walking, we pick up a foot and put it down, pick up a foot and put it down. Not so the fly. He pulls up a foot and sticks it down, pulls up a foot and sticks it down. The goo on his feet is strong enough to bear his weight, but not too strong for him to unstick.

When he takes off from a spot, the fly must ,perk himself backwards. So when you go to swat him, aim about half an inch behind where he was standing. And if you think it is cruel to swat a fly, just read the evidence against him.  A magnifying glass shows that his body, legs and even his padded feet bristle with hairs, fir. Fly is a garbage eater. He hangs around decaying stuff and always stands in his food. Fine particles of dust have been gathered from his hairy body. The microscope shows this dust to contain all kinds of germs and bacteria.

Not only is the fly shy of being fingerprinted. He is, or should be, shy of modern crime detection methods. Microscope pictures prove him to be a carrier of typhoid fever, of dysentery, of tuberculosis and countless other human ills. He is without doubt a criminal against human health. So, after him with a swatter, and swat hard!

Also remember to do your part to keep down the whole fly population. The eggs are laid and the maggots hatch in garbage cans, indoors and out. For one  fly can produce over few billion descendants between April and September. Imagine what a world it would be if all of them survived. Fortunately they donut. Just be glad that the birds, the frogs, the toads and the snakes eat their share – and swat hard!