Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-30
Natures F1y-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, intOxicates and
| poisons; green wire traps. filled with
| bugging swarms awaiting immersion
! into a tub or 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 rs pieces of mechanism.
| The genius of nature has ordained that
| every species of animal shall be proved
upon and destroyed by some instructive
enemy. But for the poor fly or winged
insect, she has provided a 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.
| 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
impracticable a scheme as 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 a 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 neatness with the draw
ings of broom periodically over ceilings
and down the angles of the room.
But the vegetable world can furnish us
with tiy-trapS at once ornamental and
effective, ingenious and capricious. In
| these days, when herbariums are affected
by housekeepers, why could not win
dow be filled with a curious and active
! plant which will work infinite delight for
the observer? 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, sat
urate them well with water, and plant out
the common pitcher-plant and the sun
| ucNS VI our AtldnIlC coast. Inc urSG OF
these plants is only a mechanical 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 a rich
nutriment to the plant.
The sundews are an ingenious and ami
mated predatory flower They know as
much as a 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 us that her sundews
knew the difference between a piece of
meat and 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 bristles. On their edge they exude
a delicious nectar, which the silly little
fly is fond of. AS soon as 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-
gest us.-PfOgidence Or. ~ JOu7naL