Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 15th and 16th November, 2008.

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 15th and 16th November, 2008.

FLIES AND FLIES.

I was at a barbecue lunch to celebrate my niece’s engagement today. It was warm and I would think about 30c/86f. Someone remarked “summer is here” and I thought not really as there are no flies. However, soon after the barbecue was lit and the sausages and steak put on it the flies arrived. Flies are a part of life here in Australia and various ways have been made to discourage them. Sometime ago I wrote about them.

Time flies like an arrow
Blow flies like a banana

The Australian Bush is not a place where time flies. It’s a place of work until it is done. Sleep and eat when you must and then face another day. It is a place where there is always time to stop and have a yarn. It is a place where time doesn’t matter if a mate is in trouble or asks to give a hand. It is a place where things are done after milking. They happen after dinner which is the meal that happens when the sun is high in the sky. Tea most often happens after dark when there is no light to continue working. Tea is the evening meal.

In days gone by many a new chum just out in the colony for the experience or some other unmentioned reason learnt that to be invited for tea was not an invitation to a genteel cup of tea and a tasty sandwich or sweet creamy cake. It was an invitation to a lump of corn beef or pickled pork or if he was lucky a slab of steak which would have fed the whole boarding house at school. With that would be as many spuds ( potatoes) or a heap of mashed spud that any Irishman would die for. A couple of boiled onions or some tinned (canned) peas would complete the main course. Oh, and there would be the gravy. There would be damper or home made bread which on good days had butter or jam or cocky’s joy (golden syrup) to go with it but mostly was handy for soaking up the gravy and helping it to the mouth. Right from the beginning of the meal, there would be copious amounts of tea, sometimes with fresh milk often with tinned condensed milk and a couple of spoons of sugar to sweeten it. Tea was the accompaniment to any meal. However as I was indicating it was not referred to as tea it was a “cuppa” or more recently a “brew.”

The other accompaniments to the meal were flies. The smaller bush flies or house flies were always there. They buzzed from place to place and tried to grab a quick snack from the plates. If you gave your attention to the meat they wanted the vegies, or would be satisfied with the bread. These small flies are brushed away with the sweep of a hand. The sweep of the fly chasing hand across ones face was known as the Aussie wave or Aussie salute. The buzz of a blow fly will draw people to action like a soldier called to attention. This is no parade ground but people are very wary of the blow fly which will quickly deposit a wriggling minute maggot or a dozen wherever it lands.

Blow flies like bananas. Well, they might but they prefer the smell of meat cooking and love the sight of meat unattended on a plate of a careless diner not guarding his meal.

I remember once sitting with a group of people in a country town backyard. The wafting smell of barbecuing meat had alerted all the flies of the district that lunch was nearly ready. So they gathered.

We had not long asked the Lord’s blessing on the meal when the old retired Brigadier (Salvation Army Officer) who was very wise to the ways of the bush took the sugar bowl and emptied a couple of small heaps on the table beside him. We all looked and thought the years had taken their toll. We were rescued by his wife who asked “Stan, what are you doing?” Brigadier Stan simply said “that’s for the flies, it will keep them busy!”

There is debate at times about flies and what attracts them most. It seems that most people are agreed that horses, sheep, cattle, ducks, and chooks (chickens) attract their fair share of flies. In recent times, with enlightenment meaning we do not spray insecticides as much as we used to, people are looking for natural ways of curbing flies.

One of the introductions to Oz to help curb them has been the dung beetle. This busy little burrowing beetle has a great love of dung. So much so, that he not only eats the stuff but takes it home to use when breeding. A dung beetle or a number of them can very quickly reduce a cow pat to nothing having either eaten it or taken down into the tunnels it has dug. The digging activity of the tunnelling beetles results in the aeration of soil as well as the transfer of nutrients to the soil by releasing the nutrients in the dung. Also, dung beetles break down dung and prevent flies from breeding in it.

It a hot summer’s day in the Outback you can watch people doing “the great Australian salute”. Moisture seeking small bush flies love to land on the face and collect moisture there or go to the corner of the eyes beside the nose to have a drink. Thus a rapid movement of the open hand from side to side across the face chases the flies, until they return again. Watch a politician or a farmer being interviewed in the bush and you will see the great Australian salute in action.

The other thing that happens in the dry heat of summer is that flies will gather on the sweat wet back of a shirt. It is nothing to see someone walking along the street or working and find 30 or more flies on the back of their shirt or blouse. Again the flies know it is a source of moisture.

Today most homes are screened against flies and mosquitos. However, in days gone by there were all types of sprays and traps to keep the flies away. In fact browse the supermarket shelves and they are still available. Some of the poisons have gone but they are replaced by some that in the makers enthusiasm for the safety of their ‘natural’ product almost invites you to have it on your toast.

One of my favourites when I was a kid before we had fly screens on the windows was the sticky fly paper. This was a strip of very sticky paper that was uncoiled from the container and hung with a thumb tack from the ceiling. It attracted the flies and when they landed on it there was no escape. It was great entertainment to watch the flies land on a new strip and listen to them buzz until they grew silent, all the effort to escape having taken all their energy.

It was great fun, too, to chase the flies around the house with a fly swatter. It took some skill or was it luck to get a fly before it landed? Yes, this was the days before television when life was uncomplicated and simple. I noticed last week one of my Swiss friends pick up a fly swat in a tourist souvenir shop. It was a great souvenir. The wide action end of the swat was in the shape of a map of Australia. I imagine it is more useful than some of the souvenirs that are offered to our visitors.

In the hot days and evenings of summer, Salvation Army bandsmen in Australia have to go out and play Christmas carols. Carolling is something that the bandsmen usually look forward to but there are some hazards. One is flies. More than once in mid carol, I have heard a bandsman break into a spasm of enthusiastic coughing. You see as he tried for a quick but deep breath through the corners of his mouth without losing time, he has suddenly lost it as he realises he has also inhaled a fly.

In the evening, the hazard is not so much flies as mosquitos. As the sun sets and the bandsmen come out for an evening of carols, the mosquitos find a new target has moved into their territory. These days the well equipped bandsmen goes equipped with roll on or spray insect repellent. Forearmed in this way the bandsmen is able to continue without slapping at the singing hordes of insects.

At one small corps in the northern suburbs of Newcastle (Australia) surrounding swamp made a great breeding place for mosquitos that came to visit any unwary person. It was interesting to note that in the Corps information for open air meetings and Christmas Carolling were instructions on how to burn cow dung to keep the mosquitos away. When I was at the corps we used insect repellent but I often wondered about the band turning up in the street with music and song, War Crys and collection boxes and a can of smouldering cow dung.

Flies are pests. They must have a purpose. I breed Australian finches but I have hesitated to do as books recommend and hang a sheep’s heart in my aviary. The idea is that flies will infest it with maggots and as the maggots fall from the heart the parent finches will grab them and use them as protein feed for their young.

I am also a keen fisherman, and although I have used a lot of baits, again I have hesitated to use “gentes” or maggots as bait. They say they are okay to use but I will leave that to someone else.

Flies were some of the pests God sent to annoy the Pharaoh and his Egyptian citizens (Exodus Chapter 8) so that the Pharaoh might let the Children of Israel go and allow Moses to lead them to the Promised Land.

The Psalmist refers to God’s power over his enemies. “GOD's my strong champion;
I flick off my enemies like flies”. (Psalm 118: 7 The Message ®)

This weekend I will leave you to suggest a song or chorus that contains the word “fly” or “flies”. For example: “Trusting as the moments fly”. ;-)

Psalm 118 (The Message®)

1Thank GOD because he's good, because his love never quits.
2Tell the world, Israel,
"His love never quits."
3And you, clan of Aaron, tell the world,
"His love never quits."
4And you who fear GOD, join in,
"His love never quits."

5Pushed to the wall, I called to GOD;
from the wide open spaces, he answered.
6GOD's now at my side and I'm not afraid;
who would dare lay a hand on me?
7GOD's my strong champion;
I flick off my enemies like flies.
8Far better to take refuge in GOD
than trust in people;
9Far better to take refuge in GOD
than trust in celebrities.
10Hemmed in by barbarians,
in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt;
11Hemmed in and with no way out,
in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt;
12Like swarming bees, like wild prairie fire, they hemmed me in;
in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt.
13I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall,
when GOD grabbed and held me.
14GOD's my strength, he's also my song,
and now he's my salvation.
15Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs
in the camp of the saved?
"The hand of GOD has turned the tide!
16The hand of GOD is raised in victory!
The hand of GOD has turned the tide!"

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27GOD is God,
he has bathed us in light.
Festoon the shrine with garlands,
hang coloured banners above the altar!
28You're my God, and I thank you.
O my God, I lift high your praise.
29Thank GOD-he's so good.
His love never quits!

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