The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-07-23
Natural Fly-Traps.

The Providence Or. H. Journal makes
these suggestions:
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, intOXicateS and
pOisonS; green wire-traps, filled with buZ-
zing swarms awaiting immersion into a
tub or a holocaust at the kitchen stove,
will tempt the money out of the pockets of
afflicted hOuSekeeperS. All these cOntriv-
anceS are dull and brutal things. They are
either grossly treacherOus or wholesale
traps of no interest at all as pieces of me-
chaniSm.
The genius of nature has ordained that
every species of animal shall be preyed
upon and destrO, ed by some instructive
enemy. But for the poor fly, or winged
insect, she has provided double class of
enemies. On them prev not only innumer-
able 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 amin is, from mere angry
passions, attack and destroy them. Horses
and COWS switch them with their tails in
deed, this seems to be the predisposing
cause of the growth of switchy tails; dogs
snapa them; men slap at them.
1--WE will not suggest so obnoxious or i'm
practicable scheme as substituting these
animals for the chemical and mechanical
traps men have invented. An animate
hOrse-tail will hardly do to brush flies
fIom the table, and tOads, however inno-
cent in their manward habits. are terror
to women and children. Spiders might
be left to spin their webs, were it not for
that cOnventiOnalism OF the ladies which
links a reputation for neatness with the
drawings of a broom periodically over
ceilings and down the angles OF the room.
But the vegetable world can furnish us
with tly-traps at once ornamental and ef-
fective, ingenious and capaciOus. In these
DAYS, when herbariumS are affected by
hOusekeepers, why could not window be
filled with curious and active plant which
will work indefinite delight for the observ-
er? The way to do this thing is to secure
a window box which will hold water. In
this put some MOSES gathered from peat
bOgS or marshes, ,saturate them with water,
and plant out the common pitcher-plant
and the sundews of our Atlantic coast.
The first of these plants is only meckan-
ical trap. Its pitcher is filled nearly with
water, which the flies try to drink, when
they fall in and drown. Naturalists tell
us that these leaves are sometimes so filled
with drowned flies as to furnish rich nu-
triment to the plant.
The sundews are an ingenious and ami
mated predatory flower. They know as
much a a puppy four weeks old. They
can't be fooled. They will eat animal
food, but they are not like the silly, sensi-
tive plant which shuts up at every touch
Mrs. Treat tells us that her sundews knew
the difference between piece of meat and
piece of chalk. One they will shut down
upon and the other they will not touch.
The plant spreads out its leaves, whichare
covered with little, fine bristles. On their
edge they exude delicious nectar, which
the silly little tly is fon0 of. As soon as he
puts his proboscis in the nectar up come
the spires and fasten nim 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-
gest us.