Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-10-22
WHERE DO FLIES 60?
Also, What Becomes Of fhs Grass
hopperS and Ants?
MORNING SLEEP NOW A LUXURY.
SCARCE A FORTNIGHT AGO AND
ALL OUTDOORS TEEMED WITH
INSECT LIFE -TRAG EDY
WROUGHT BY FROST.

INSECT LIFE II r A G E d Y
WROUGHT BY FROST.
What has become Of the flies. the
grasshoppers and ants? The morning
nap is now luxury. for the winged
torment that made the early hours mis-
cradle is no more, and tn, honey pot
and sugar jar are sale from sweet-loy-
ing marGlders.
A fortnight ago the prairies were mu-
steal with the hum of countless insects.
At twilight chorus of sharp-yoiced'
katydids insistently called from The
trees. The grasshoppers, great and
small, humming gnats, buzzing flies
and singing mosquitoes timed their or
chestra on the lawn, while the daddy
long-legs, hunting spiders and business
like crickets got themselves ready to
venture on their nightly foray. The
moths plumed their tiny feathers and
set forth on midnight pilgrimages to
the nectar cups of the snowy flowers
the moths alone Bluebot.le flies, bees,
wasps and butterflies slorted in the
long slanting beams o. the afternoon
sunshine, and it seemed as if summer
was yet in its prime.
The ants in the garden worked indus
triously about their tunneled cities A
pack train climbed the house wall to
the Kitchen closet window and entering
through break in the screen, carried
away sugar from the sugar barrel for
fully two days before being discovered
At least the infant son of the household
made mention of the fact that he had
seen them first ON Sunday. and now
it was Tuesday. The same afternoon
the dragon flies began appearing in
thousands. Great, gorgeous-looking
fellows, with iridescent heads and rain
boW-colored tails, green, blue, bronze
and carmine. Where they had come
from was a problem. There were Meth
er marshes nor ponds in the vicinity,
and the dry weather since the middle
of August gave no reason for such
a phenomenon. At o'clock the same
afternoon the night hawks began to
appear. First a dozen. then score,
and finally in flocks. They darted here
and there through the upper air in |
arrowlike flights, uttering their harsh |
cries. 1t soon became evident that they |
were on hunting expeditions. The tight !
hawks had followed the dragon flies, |
which had been carried hither by air |
currents from some other point. Both |
vanished with the sunset, not even one |
was seen soaring in the twilight sky.
EVENINGS NOW ARE SILENT.
1t was but a fortnight ago that all |
out of doors was teeming with life. |
Now, with the hint of frost in the air,
the evenings are silent. The hardy |
black cricket chirps in lonely fashion |
near the fireplace or in the cellar. Oc-
casionally fly buzzes across the win |
dow pane in the sunshine. And if you |
are driving along country read |
solitary humble bee may be seen on the |
golden rod, and a belatsd grasshopper,
gives feeble sp.ing 20 avoid capture. |
The butterflies and moths cannot be
seen anywhere, and where have gone |
the ants, bees, wasps and locusts? It
looks rs if the first chill breath of /
autumn had wrought Wholesale
tragedy at ore fell swoop. Eut where
are the dead AMI the dying?
The housefy an blue bottle fly, the |
bane of the housessper, are short lived
at best. Many flies live but Gay.
The excitement. Of escaping extermina-
ton and rearing their young rounds
out an existence of twenty-four hours.
Nature, in appreciation of their short |
career has provided them with COM |
pound eyes, which see about on all sides,
a maryelously acute scent ana faoil- !
ity Of flight which is the aggravation of
him who dozes 1T noonlay and who |
tries to catch that one fy. When
autumn comes the death knell Of mil
lion flies has sounded. They make no
preparation sor winter. The majority
die. and their Insignificant bodies are
blown away by the passing breeze. A
few hardy survivors linger in cracks
in the walls, creep under the door
frames or in crsvices in tie woodwork.
Ii is probable that eggs are laid, lar
vac Matched AMI other flies creep from
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