Fly problem reaching “nuisance” level, says environmental health director

In response to numerous calls she’d received about large fly populations both in towns and on farms, Environmental Health Director Sandy McGrath reported on the problem to the board of supervisors on Monday. Board Chairman Stan Watne said in some places the fly plague was of “near- Biblical” proportions, and McGrath said she was ready to consider the flies a “nuisance”—defined by Iowa code as something “injurious to health, indecent, or unreasonably offensive to the senses… so as essentially to interfere unreasonably with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.”

McGrath outlined a few reasons the fly population might be so high. First, she said the DNR is in charge of manure management, but dry manure, called litter and considered a nutrient, is under the jurisdiction of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, who doesn’t start inspecting until June. Dry litter doesn’t create a breeding environment for flies unless it gets wet, but our recent rainy weather combined with the slow spring warmup has created the perfect environment.

Read the full article in the May 19 edition of the Eagle.