Daily camera., 1898-02-01
USES FOR TOADS AND BATS.
Are Great Insect Killers and Can
Be Made Household Pets.
Instructive Experiments Prove Tha,
Both Destroy Great Many
Flies, Mosquitoes and
NoxfOus Bugs.

DR.. Clifton Z. ..ocge, assistant pro-
fcssor of physiology and neurology at
Clark university in Worcester, Mass.
has been devoting a good deal OF time
of late to the introduction of nature
study in the public schools, and in pre-
pairing the subjects to be placed be-
fore the children for investigation he
has learned some interesting facts. lie
has found that the common brown bat
can be domesticated; that the garden
toad, with proper encouragement will
keep a house free from flies, and that
if the waters of a district are kept well
stocked with fish and tadpoles the mos
quito pest can be reduced to reasonable
limits
Before setting the children at
work DR.. Hodge made personal OBJ
servations Of the toad in captivity. lie
constructed a small pen in his garden.
and in it, in a pan of water, installed a
male and female toad. To attract food
for them he placed within the inclo-
sure bits of meat and bone The re-
suits were as satisfactory as they were
unexpected. The toads sFert most CT
their time sitting within reacLng -
lance Of the bait, and killing the flies
attracted by it. The female laid he1
eggs in the water of the pan, and in
due time the little black tadpoles made
their appearance. There was really
10 need of the imprisoning walls of
wire netting; the prisoners could not
have Ecen hired to escape. The neigh
Ec-s were receiving a marked benefit
from the experiment. They had never
had SO few flies to annoy them. Then
DR.. Hodge established another and
larger colcny. Here three or four toads
were to be seen squatting about a sin
gle bone, each swapping up every fly
that came near. The fact seemed to
be established that if toads were en-
couraged to frequent the gardens there
would be very much less annoyance
from flies during the dog days.
Another of DR.. Hodges experiments
was with bats. His attention was
turned to them through, the Goblin
moth, the insect to blame for most
Norm-eaten apples. In an orchard near
his home DR.. Hodge found nine of the
grubs of this insect in a minute. Chanc-
ing to go into another orchard, hardly
mile from the first, he found only four
Of the grubs in an hours search. There
is an old barn near by in which live a
colony of between Is and 100 bats. The
owner Of the farm informed the doc
tor that his apples were always free
from worms. The naturalist caught
bat and offered to it some of the grubs,
which were greedily accepted. The
Goblin moth flies only at night; the
facts together, DR.. Hodge thought
there was a strong case of circumstan-
tial evidence that the bat was very
useful friend of the apple grower.
DR.. Hodge took half a dozen of the
bats home with him and installed them
in his parlor. AT first they greeted any
friendly advances with chattering an
ger. After awhile they became quite
tame, and whenever their jailer entered
the room they would fly to him for
food. They never reached the point
OF allowing themselves to be handled,
but they were friendly. Their home
was in the folds at the top Of the win
dow draperies, and when night came,
and sometimes in the daytime, they
would spend their time flying about the
room, regardless of the presence of
members of the family. DR.. Hodge
would occasionally feed them with in
after netful of the night-fy;ng varic-
ties, and never bug remained in the
morning. They took everything, from
a spider to a polyphemus moth. One
morning the doctor counted while one
hat devoured GS house flies. He be-
Iieves that the bat would be almost as
susceptible to tanning as the monkey.
Observation of fish in his aquariuIp3
has shown DR.. Hodge that they are the
natural enemies of the mosquito. They
are very fond of the larva of the sing
ing pest. Hc saw one sunfish no larger
than a silver dollar swallow between 65
and 70 wrigglers in a single hour. And
it was also demonstrated to him that
tadpoles, both of frogs and toads, are
inveterate enemies of the embryo mos
quito.-Chicago Inter Ocean.
Lapidary.