The Canadian girl who killed over 500,000 flies

At this point, you may be thinking to yourself: “what’s so special about a fly swatter, let alone fly swatting?” Well, as it turns out, a lot! Just ask Beatrice White, a Canadian girl who won the first “Swat the Fly” contest in Toronto, Canada by killing 543,360 flies in just 10 days For a picture, see the Toronto Public Library. Along with the Toronto Daily Star, Toronto’s medical health department in 1912 organized a fly swatting contest in order to decrease the spread of flyborne diseases in the cityIf you’d like to read the full article on Beatrice’s life and legacy, click to this article in The Star. In July of that year the newspaper stated: “The only way for the city to be uniformly safe is to carry on a vigorous war of extermination”. $200 in prizes were split amongst the top participants. For perspective, today that would equal to around $5,550 Canadian dollars.

Originally, after the six-week contest the children brought in their dead flies and they were counted by placing them in containers, averaging approximately 3,200 flies for every full glass. However, the children complained that their flies had “shrunk” while they were being counted, so officials told them to bring them in “fresh”, but still dead. That caused another problem, as they had issues keeping them still in containers while counting them. Another issue came about in the form of methodology: most children were using their bare hands or random household materials to kill the flies, which still posed somewhat of a health problem. Finally, Charles Hastings (Toronto’s chief medical officer at the time) suggested they use traps made of wood and wire with a funnel entrance through which a fly could not escape.

This is where our female protagonist comes in. Beatrice, one of Hattie Lawlor and Henry White’s 10 children, was just 15 when she dreamed of using the prize money from the contest to pay for music lessons. A couple of days after “Swat the Fly” began, she walked up to city hall with a box filled with thousands of fly carcasses. And she kept coming. Beatrice’s new found fame didn’t just come in handy for her; through her efforts, her neighbors on Regent St. were finally able to leave their windows open. Every morning she would leave a piece of liver underneath her boxes to attract the flies and lay a cloth covered with insect powder over the traps. The next day she would collect the dead insects in a separate box and begin the process all over again. Sadly, not everyone was happy with the way Beatrice’s fly swatting was progressing. Indeed, one day her father received a warning from a neighbor who had heard that “some big fellows [were] planning to raid Beatrice’s trap and let the flies all out.” Maybe it was from someone who wanted Elva Baill, the small girl who came in second place, to win. Seven-year-old Elva lived near a manure heap in Fort York which was “one of the worst breeding places” for flies in the city. She obviously had an advantage. Nevertheless, at the final count in August, Elva hadn’t managed to win first place as she was only able to kill 234,400 flies - close but not quite enough to beat Beatrice. In the end, Beatrice won $50 (worth about $1,387 Canadian dollars in 2021).

After the success of the contest, the Toronto Daily Star received several letters from women who claimed they appreciated the “vigorous exercise of fly swatting.” One read: “Regarding the Fly-Swatting Contest — in swatting the fly I have found the ideal form of physical culture of all the methods I have tried. It beats lawn tennis, swimming, and all the others combined. Let all our young ladies try it. I take a long stick — a broom handle will do, and tied to the end of it, I fix a paper flour bag about two feet long. Then I open the windows and commence bounding and leaping after the flies — first the right arm and then the left, as one arm must not be exercised more than another [...] If you leap lightly from the floor when you swat the ceiling you will be surprised what a fine glow and a healthy feeling it will give you.”

As became quite obvious with the next year’s contest, fly swatting was not a genetic talent. In 1913 Beatrice was occupied with a suitor, so her sister Mildred entered the “Swat the Fly” contest but only came in second place, having secured $20 ($550 Canadian dollars today) with 54,720 dead flies. Years later, the newspaper interviewed Beatrice again and asked her about her experience.”I don't know how many fly swatters I wore out,” she said. And what of the prize money? Had she gotten to take those music lessons afterall? She told them her father had taken the money and spent it only on himself, not even on their family.

Fly High Beatrice White

So, even though Beatrice didn’t even get a chance to follow her music lessons, she did become somewhat of an artistic muse. In fact, in 1980 two pieces of art were created using her story as inspiration. First, the Canadian National Film Board produced a short film about Beatrice and the “Swat the Fly” contest called The Angel of Death. Then, Harold Town created a painting entitled “Painting for Beatrice White - Winner of the 1912 Fly-Killing Contest with a Score [of] 543,360 Dead Insects” which depicted two girls waving fly swatters as if they were fairies holding wands. This last piece is now valued at $100,000 Canadian dollars (around €68,000) and is still kept in the artist’s Toronto estate. The year after it was completed, a Globe and Mail art critic claimed that the painting was a “grandly operatic tribute, in the manner of a Medici tomb.”

Sadly, despite the local fame she acquired, Beatrice White’s unclaimed cremated remains are now buried in common ground. “It sounds like she just died with no money [...] She wasn’t buried, nobody claimed her body. I’m so sad when I think of it,” said Bearice’s niece Tracy when she was interviewed in 2015.

In the face of the fact that some local legends will perhaps always be forgotten, there is proof of Beatrice’s existence and what she did for the city of Toronto. She may not be on a Canadian dollar bill, but she obviously impacted a lot of people. Think of her neighbors for example; thanks to her, her trap and her fly swatters, they were able to open their windows without fearing they might attract disease-carrying insects. Not counting the millions of flies the other contestants must have killed that year, Beatrice rid Toronto of over half a million flies, and the success of the contest encouraged its rerun the following years. So, she may not be known alongside Terry Fox for her efforts and no one will run marathons in her name, that’s true. But Beatrice White will not be forgotten and the art she inspired is proof of that.