{"id":12326,"date":"2026-07-15T15:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/26\/biology-professor-clifton-hodge-led-1911-fight-against-flies-in-worcester\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:09:37","slug":"biology-professor-clifton-hodge-led-1911-fight-against-flies-in-worcester","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/15\/biology-professor-clifton-hodge-led-1911-fight-against-flies-in-worcester\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarkives: Biology professor Clifton Hodge led 1911 fight against flies in Worcester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the April 7, 1911, edition of the Worcester Telegram \u2014 sandwiched between reports on an Easter festival and a speech by a district nurse \u2014 readers were confronted by a provocative headline:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WAR ON HOUSEFLIES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Dr. Clifton F. Hodge Asks Worcester People to Wage Active Campaign,&#8221;&nbsp;the subheadline read.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"330\" height=\"674\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Telegram-War-on-Houseflies-1911.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28933\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Telegram-War-on-Houseflies-1911.avif 330w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Telegram-War-on-Houseflies-1911-147x300.avif 147w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The short news item was about a lecture Biology Professor Clifton Hodge had given the night before, in which he shared his belief that Worcester could become a pioneer in housefly eradication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy the use of about 40 slides and the strongest kind of arguments,\u201d the story notes, \u201cDr. Hodge showed his audience that the house fly can be exterminated, and he is going to work hard to bring that about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hodge told his audience that the \u201cearly fly\u201d produces enormous swarms by the end of summer. \u201cThe progeny of one pair, it has been reckoned, will number in a single season 191 quintillions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we get a good start this April we can handle the situation for all time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The following is adapted from \u201cClark University: A Narrative History, 1887\u20131987,\u201d by William Koelsch (Clark University Press, 1987).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clifton F. Hodge, a young University of Wisconsin neurologist who had earlier been a fellow in psychology at Clark University, joined the Clark biology faculty in the 1890s. When the college was established, Hodge taught in that also, and proved to be a popular undergraduate teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hodge also became interested in the pedagogy of biology, developed educational programs in cooperation with the Worcester public schools, and, along with President G. Stanley Hall, became a leader in the nature study movement of the 1910s. His enthusiasm was such that he even wrote nature study skits for the <em>Youth\u2019s Companion<\/em> in order to interest the largest possible youthful audience. He served on the original editorial committee of the Nature Study Review and wrote a widely used manual for teachers, Nature Study and Life (1902).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1909, Hodge coordinated a national effort to find an undisturbed passenger pigeon nesting site in a vain attempt to preserve the bird (the species entered extinction in 1914). In 1911, in cooperation with the Worcester Telegram, he organized the city\u2019s schoolchildren&nbsp;in a widely publicized effort to make Worcester the first fly-free city in America (apparently, he was convinced that flies spread typhoid). Prizes were awarded for killing and bringing in the most flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the close of the contest, Worcester had 16,267,088 fewer flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWouldn&#8217;t it be fine if Worcester should be the pioneer in the extermination of the house flies and mosquitoes,\u201d Professor Clifton F. Hodge said on April 6, 1911, reported in the Worcester Telegram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28929,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-deeper-red)","story_headerImg":28929,"section_label":"Clarkives","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223],"displayed_author":[258],"featured":[],"topic":[234],"class_list":["post-12326","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","displayed_author-melissa-lynch-95-mspc-15","topic-clarkives"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clarkives: Biology professor Clifton Hodge led 1911 fight against flies in Worcester | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/15\/biology-professor-clifton-hodge-led-1911-fight-against-flies-in-worcester\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clarkives: Biology professor Clifton Hodge led 1911 fight against flies in Worcester\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWouldn&#039;t it be fine if Worcester should be the pioneer in the extermination of the house flies and mosquitoes,\u201d Professor Clifton F. 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