Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-02-17
DEATH TO INSECTS.
rOada and Rats Destroy EItes and
Mosquitoes.

1 AO&uA DSANE0g EIheS ana
Mosquitoes.
| DIR. Clifton +. Hodge, assistant pro-
lessor of physiology and neurology at
Clark university in Worcester, Mass,
mas been devoting 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. He
| has found that the common brown bat
.an be domesticated; that the garden
toad, with proper encouragement, will
keep a house free from flies, and that
| If the waters of district are kept well
stocked with fish and tadpoles the mos
quito pest can be reduced to reasonable
limits.
work DIR. Hodge made personal OBJ
servations of the toad in captivity. He
constructed a small pen in his garden,
and in it, in o 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 spent most of
their time sitting within reaching dis
tanee of the bait, and killing the flies
attracted by it. The female laid her
eggs in the water of the pan, and in
due time the little black tadpoles made
their appearance. There was really
no need of the imprisoning walls OF
wire netting; the prisoners could not
have been hired to escape. The neigh
bors were receiving D marked benefit
from the experiment. They had never
had so few flies to annoy them. Then
DR.. Hodge established another and
larger colony. Here three or four toads
were to be seen squatting about sim
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 DIR. Hodges experiments
was with bats. His attention was
turned to them through the Goblin
moth, the insect to blame for most
worm-eaten apples. In an orchard near
his home DR.. Hodge found nine of the
grubs of this insect in 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
colony of between 75 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
same is true of the bat. Putting the
facts together, DIR. Hodge thought
here was a strong case of circumstan,
tial evidence that the bat was a very
useful friend of the apple grower.
DIR. Hodge took half dozen of the
bats home with him and installed then
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 1T 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. DIR. Hodge
would occasionally feed them with in.
sects in the evening, releasing netful
after netfuI of the night-fiying varie
ties, and never bug remained in the
morning. They took everything, from
spider to polyphemus moth. One
morning the doctor counted while one
bat devoured 6S house flies. He be.
lieves that the bat would be almost as
susceptible to tanning as the monkey.
Observation of fish in his aquariums
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. He saw one sunfish no larger
than silver dollar swallow between 65
and 90 wrigglers in single hour. And
it was also demonstrated to him that
tadpoles, both of frogs and toads, are
.nveterate enemies of the embryo mos
luito.-Chicago Inter Ocean.