The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-02
USES FOR TOADs AND RATS.
Both Great Insect Killers and Can
BE Made Into Household Pets.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Worcester, Mass, Dec. 25.-Dr. Clifton
T.. Hodge, assistant professor of physiology
and neurology al Clary University in this
city, has been devotlng a good deal of time
of late to the Introduction of nature study
in the public schools, and in preparing the
subjects to be placed before the children
for investiga ton he has learned some in
teresting facts. He has found that the
common brown bat can be domesticated;
that the garden toad, with proper encour-
agement will keep a house free from flies;
and that if the waters of the district are
kept well stocked with fish and tadpoles
the mosquito pest can be reduced to reason
able limits
Before setting the children at work DR.
Hodge made personal observations of the
toad in captivity. He constructed a small
pen in his garden and in il, in a pan of
water, installed a male and female toad.
To attract food for them he placed within
the inclosure bits of meat and bone The
results We're as satisfactory as they were
unexpected. The toads spent most of their
time sitting within reaching distance of
the bait and killing the flies attracted by
IT, The female laid her eggs II the water
of the pan, and in due time the little black
tadpOies made their appearance. There
was really no need Of the imprlsoning walls
of wire netting; the prisoners could not
have been hired to escape. The neighbors
were receiving a amrked benefit from the
experiment. They had never had so few
flies to annoy them. Then DR.. Hodge es-
tablshed another and larger colony. Here
three or four toads were to be seen squat
ting about a single bone, each swapping up
every fly that came near The fact
seemed to be established that IL toads were
encouraged to frequent the gardens there
n
flies during the dog days.
Another of DR.. Hedges 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 "a min
ute. CHANGING 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 seventy-fiYe and
hundred bats. The owner of the farm in
formed the doctor that his apples were al
ways free from worms. The naturalist
caught a bat and offered to It some of the
grubs which were greedlly accepted. The
Goblin moth flies only at night; the same
lis true of the bat. Putting the facts to-
gether, DIR. Hodge thought there was a
strong case of circustantial evidence that
the bat was very useful friend of the
dple grower.
DR.. Hodge took half dozen OF the bats
home with him and installed them in his
parlor. At first they greeted any friend
ly advances with chattering anger. After
a while they became quite tame and when
ever 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 window draperies and when night
came and sometimes in the daytime they
would spend their time flying about the
ROOM regardless of the presence of mem
bers of the family. DR.. Hodge would oc-
OCCASIONALLY feed them with insects in the
evening, releasing netful after netful of
the night-hylng varieties, ana never a bug
remained in the morning They took ev-
erything, from a spider to a polyphemus
moth One mOrnig the doctor counted
while one bat devoured sixty-eight house
flies. He believes that the bat would be
almost as susceptible to tanning as the
monkey.
Observation Of fish in his aquarlums has
shown DR.. Hodge that they are the nat
ural enemies of the mosquito They are
very fond Of the larvae Of the singing pest.
He saw one sunfish no larger than q silver
dollar swallow between sixty-hve and
seventy wngglers in a single hour. And
It was also demonstrated to him that tad
poles both of frogs and. toads, are invet-
crate enemies of the embryo MOSQUITO