Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-12-28
DEADLY ENEMIES OF SNAKES.
loads and Bats Make War on Flies,
Reaches and Mosquitoes

AS result of experiments with
toads and bats it has been
demonstrated that house, or
even community, can be rid
of very troublesome insects, In
Guiding hies and mosquitoes These
experiments were made by Prof. Gin
ton Z. Hodge of Clark university, Wor-
cester, Mass. Prof. Hodges first ex-
pertinent was with the toad. Il con-
structed a small pen in my garden"
he said, and in it, in a pan of water,
installed a male and female toad. To
obtain food for them | placed within
the inclosure bits OF meat and bone.
The results were as satisfactory as
they were unexpected The toads
spent most of the time sitting within
reaching distance of the bait and kill
ing the flies attracted by it. | watched
one toad snap up eighty-siX house flies
in less than ten minutes.
"One day | gathered a quantity OF
rose bugs in tin box and began to
feed the bugs to a toad. At first | did
not count, but finding his appetite SO
good | started to count. When | had
counted over eighty bugs and the toad
showed no signs of wishing to con-
clude his meal, [ picked him up. Pre-
vious to my beginning to count he had
taken anywhere from ten to twenty
bugs. [ found the toad equally greedy
for rose beetles, canker worms, ants,
caterpillars, moths, June bugs, Weevils,
snails, and many other insects SO,
too, in house, room may be cleared
of cockrOaches by leaving a toad in 1t
over night.
"a single toad may destroy over
1000 worms during the months of
May, June, and July, and one of these
harmless creatures may well do a
gardener service to the amount OF
$19S8 each season, and yet he can raise
SO, 900 worth of toads at an expense OF
not more than 20 cents.
Farmers in England buy them,
paying as high as $24 a thousand, for
use in their flower beds and gardens.
For household purposes small num-
Der of toaGs could be given homes In
an aquarium. At night the toads could
be let loose to kill bugs, while in the
day they could kill flies. have built
a sort of cage or wire screen a foot
wide and two feet long, the top of
which is kept open. It is only neces-
sary to put in two or three tOads, pro-
vide them with shelter, with a dish
of water in one corner, and then keep
them supplied with bits Of raw meat
and any other refuse matter calculated
to attract flies"
In speaking of the bat Prof. Hodge
said: 1--WE have no animal more in
| teresting and probably none more val
liable and certainly none less under
stood and more abused, than the bat.
| They are easily tanned, absolutely
! harmless when gently handled, and
make pets as funny as tiny monkeys.
| AS destroyers of many of cur most pes
! tiferous night-fying insects, like mos
quitoes, the bat is almost our sole de
! pendence, and as he is known to hunt
insects afoot as well as on the wing
he is also of some value for larvae
that do not fly.
my attention was turned to the bat
through the Goblin moth, the insect to
blame for most worm-eaten apples. In
an orchard near my home found nine
Of the grubs of this insect in a minute.
CHANGING to go to another orchard,
hardly mile away, | found only four
of the grubs in an hours search.
%. There is an old barn near by in which
live colony of between seventy-fve
and one hundred bats. The owner in
formed me that his apples were always
free from worms. Bangor Industrial
Record.