Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-12-28
DEADLY ENEMIRS OF SNAKES.
loads and Bats Make War on Flies,
Reaches and Mosquitoes.

~hSo anu hOSuuIJOtS.
AS a result of experiments with
toads and bats it has beer
demonstrated that house, or
even community, can be rid
of very troublesome insects. in
Guiding Lies and mosquitoes These
experiments were made by Prof. Gin
ton f. Hodge of Clark university, Wox-
cester, Mass. Prof. Hodges first ex-
pertinent was with the toad. II cor
structed a small pen in my garden.
he said, and in it, in a pan of waite,
installed male and female toad. To
obtain food for them | placed within
the Enclosure 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 kills
ing the flies attracted by it. watched
one toad snap up eighty-s;x house flies
in less than ten minutes.
"One day | gathered a quantity Of
rose bugs in tin box and began ia
feed the bugs to toad AT first die
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, a room may be cleared
of cockroaches by leaving a toad in i
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 q
Sass each season, and yet he can raise
$4,000 worth of toads at an expense a
not more than 20 cents.
Farmers in England buy them,
/ paying as high as $24 a thousand, fer
use in their flower beds and gardens.
! For household purposes a small num-
4 Der of toads 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
sort of cage or wire screen foot
wide and two feet long, the top 81
which is kept open. It is only neces-
sary to put in two or three toads, pre-
vide them with shelter, with a disc
of in
| them supplied with bits of raw meat
and any other refuse matter calculated
to attract flies"
In speaking of the bat Prof. Hodge
said: I'VE 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 our most pes.
tiferOus night-6ying 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 II
blame for most worm-eaten apples. In
an orchard near my home | found nine
of the grubs of this insect in minute
CHANGING to so to another orchard.
hardly mile away, | found only four
of the grubs in an hours search
There is an old barn near by in whicn
live colony of between seventy-fivs
and one hundred bats. The owner in
formed me that his apples were always
free from worms. Bangor Tndustria,
Record