 Manure is among the fly’s most sought after food sources, and because industrial farms are major producers of manure, flies can become a significant problem on and around large livestock facilities. When a fly lands to feed, it spreads bacteria from whatever it feeds off onto whatever it lands on next. As a result, these flies can be a source of disease transmission on large-scale industrial farming operations. However, they are not only a nuisance and health threat to the animals on industrial farms, but to surrounding communities and residents as well.
Flies typically travel one to two miles during their lifespan, although some species can travel ten miles or more when they invade neighboring communities en masse.i For example, just a few weeks after an industrial farm opened in Hartford, Michigan, in August 2004, flies invaded nearby homes and businesses, covering walls and doors in such great numbers that it was impossible to go in or out of buildings without bringing the swarms inside.ii
Human and Animal Health
These sorts of infestations are more than a nuisance-- they present serious threats to human and animal health. Flies can spread a host of dangerous diseases to humans, including polio, tuberculosis, anthrax, leprosy, cholera, typhoid fever, conjunctivitis, salmonella, and dysentery. They can also help spread dangerous parasites like cryptosporidium parvum, tapeworms and roundworms.iii
Some species, such as stable flies, cause cows serious pain and can also physically weaken them. Stable flies have piercing, sucking mouth parts that they inject into a cow’s skin in order to feed on its blood. Stable fly bites make cows stomp continuously in agony to shake off the parasites, and the pain and stress of the bites lead to cow weight loss and reduced productivity.iv
Stable flies also cause significant problems at hog farms. Hog breeding farms are often extremely confined and set up over a system of slats so that the manure simply falls through the floor and accumulates. This is the perfect breeding ground for flies. Stable flies, along with house flies, are typically found in large numbers at swine facilities and have been known to transmit hog cholera, as a well as a multitude of other diseases. v
Flies not only carry diseases between animals on a single farm, but have been known to travel and infect animals at other farms as well. According to a 1998 survey, the area surrounding a 100,000-hen egg facility in Vermont was completely infested with flies. In particular, neighboring farmers reported that the flies were spreading mastitis (a severe udder infection) among their cows, as well as increasing the animals’ stress and decreasing their milk production. vi
Control Methods
Controlling the fly populations on any kind of farm is difficult—but it is even more so on industrial farms. A report by the University of Nebraska's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources states that fly infestation on dairies can be prevented through a combination of "sanitation, cultural practices, and judicious use of insecticides." More specifically, the report recommends keeping clean the major fly-producing sections of feedlots, such as the area behind the feeding pens, the bedding of animal sick pens, and the feed storage areas-- a nearly impossible task on an industrial farm with hundreds or even thousands of head of cattle. vii
Sustainable Solutions
In the long term, what is really needed is a shift in thinking about how our food is produced. Rather than viewing large fly infestations as an inevitable problem, agribusiness should begin to think of them as a symptom and a warning sign that the current methods of industrial farming are flawed and unsustainable.
Sustainable farmers make it their business to understand the ecosystem and natural cycles in which they operate. These farms keep their barns clean, and also employ other natural controls (such as the use of a certain type of wasp that eats fly eggs) to keep fly populations down. By working with nature, rather than against it, they spare themselves, their animals, and their communities, unnecessary pests and health threats.
What You Can Do
- If you live near a factory farm where flies are a problem, remember that you are not alone. Talk to your neighbors, local government, and zoning board members, and ask them to share their experiences. Many homeowners have found that flies, as well as rats, vultures, and other unwanted pests from nearby industrial farms have reduced the value of their property. Some community groups have even successfully sued factory farms under what are known as “nuisance laws.
- Buy sustainable
The best way to limit risks posed by the massive fly infestations so common to industrial farms is to support sustainable, organic, and local alternatives, such as farmers’ markets, small-scale family farms and community-supported agriculture. See Sustainable Table’s Shop Sustainable section to find out how and where to shop.
- Get to know your local farmer.
Enter your zip code into the Eat Well Guide to find a farmer close to you, so that you can begin supporting local, sustainable agriculture.
Did You Know?
- Pasture-raised cows are better equipped to deal with flies because they are free to move away from them, as well as swat them with their tails, unlike factory-farmed cows, whose tails are often docked (cut off).
- Sanitation is thought to be roughly 75% of the work towards maintaining the fly population on farms, and therefore is more effective than the use of pesticides. viii
- A female house fly lays up to 200 eggs every 3-4 days! ix
For More Information
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