American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-08-08
Natures Fly-Traps.

As the season for flies comes on, the
drug stores will put out their papers for
destroying these friends of man, and the
groceries will display their various traps
| for the same purpose. Brown paper that
kills the fly mechanically, by sticking up
his legs and eXhausting him in fruitless
efforts to escape; lead-colored paper that
treacherously allures, intoNicates and
| poisons; green wire traps, filled with
| bugging swarms awaiting immersion
into tub or a holocaust at the kitchen
stove, will tempt the money out of the
pockets of afflicted housekeepers. All
| these cOntrivances are dull and brutal
| things. They are either grossly treacher-
| Gus or wholesale traps of no interest at
all ;,s pieces of mechanism
The genius of nature has ordained that
every species of animal shall be preyed
upon and destroyed by some instructive
enemy But for the poor fly, or winged
| insect, she has provided double class of
enemies. On them prey not only in
Vulnerable species of animals, but also
an abundant variety of vegetable growths.
Ichneumons, toads, birds and spiders
butcher the gentle little fly for food,
while innumerable animals, from mere
angry passions, attack and destroy them
Horses and cows switch them with their
tails; indeed, this seems to be the pre-
disposing cause of switchy tails; dogs
snap at them; men slap at them.
We will not suggest so obnoxious or
impracticablc a scheme substituting
these animals for the chemical and
mechanical traps men have invented.
An animate horse-tail will hardly do to
brush flies away from the table, and toads,
however innocent in their MAYNARD
habits are II terror to the women and
children. Spiders might be left to spin
their webs were it not for that conven-
tionalism of the ladies which links a
reputation for neatncss with the draw
ings of Il broom periodically over ceilings
and down the angles of the room.
But the vegetable world can furnish us
with tfy-traps at once ornamental and
effective, ingenious and capricious. In
these days. when herbariums are affected
by housekeepers, why could not Il win
dow be filled with curious and active
plant which will work infinite delight for
the observer? The way to do this thing
is to secure Il window-boX which will
hold water. In this put some MOSES
gathered from peat hogs or marshes, sat
urate them well with water, and plant out
the common pitcher-plant and the sun
dcwS of our Atlantic coast. The first of
these plants is only mechanical trap
Its pitcher is filled nearly with water,
which the flies try to drink, when they
fall in and drown. Naturalists tell us
thai these leaves are sometimes SO nlltu
with drowned flies as to furnish rich
nutrimcnt to the plant.
The sundcws are an ingenious and ami
mated predatory flower. They know us
much as puppy four weeks old They
can't be fooled. They will eat animal
food, but they are not like the silly sen
sitive plant that shuts up at every touch
Mrs. Treat tells that her sundcwS
knew the difference between Il piece of
meat and "A piece of chalk. One they
will shut down upon and the other they
will not touch. This plant spreads out
its leaves, which are covered with little,
fine brstlcs. On their edge they cNudc
II delicious nectar, which the silly little
fly is fond of. AS soon us he puts his
probosCiS in the nectar, up comes the
spires and fastens him down. Then the
leaf curls over him and begins to digest
him. This is cruel but far more com
Portable than for the flies To bite and di-
gcst Proridehce II. ~ JouI7,di.