The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-25
FLYLESS SUMMERS.
They May Come When This Mundane


House flies" said DIR. l.. O. Howard,
the famous entomologist of the Agrlcul-
tural Department, comes mostly from
stables and the dirt left in the streets
by horses. If we could do away with
horses we would not have so many mes
A single stable in which horse is kept
will fill an extended neighborhood with
flies People living in agricultural COM
munities will probably never get RID OF
the pest but in cities, with better
modes of disposing of garbage and with
| the lessening of the number of horses IN
stables consequent upon the increased
use of electric street railways, bicycles
and horseless carriages, the time may
come when window screens may be dis
carded."
"Is there any way to do away with
| flies?"
I'VE have tried everything we can
think Of. A careful screening of VIM
dows and doors, with the supplementary
use of sticky fly paper, is the best pre-
ventive measure known, but there is no
hope of relief except by doing away
with the breeding places, and those are
chiefly the manure piles in stables. we
\ have tried slack lime, land plastei'
chloride of lime, kerosene ana all softs
of things, and, while they will XIII the
larvae by contact, the expense and the
labor make their use impractlcaple.
The most practical preventive we nave
found in our experience in the Agrlcul-
tural Department is the adoption OF d
sealed closet for manure. When II was
pitched out into the barn-yard II was
breeding place for millions OF MES
which swarm through the Offices OIL the
department and among the neighporlnS
houses. Last year a closet by feet
in size was built in a corner of the stable
and the window was covered by flne
wire screen. Frequent careful eXami-
nations showed no evidence of larvae
and shovelful Of chloride of lime
scattered in the closet every day maze
breeding impossible. The effect was
( Immediately noticed by the clerks OF
the department and residents of the
neighborhood, who reported to us that
after a few weeks the flies almost en-
tirely disappeared
"By adopting familiar measures, by
building tight closets for manure, liv-
cry stable keepers, farmers and others
who have horses can reduce the fly pest
in a great measure. | know of no other
| way in which it can he done, for while
flies breed in all kinds of offal the most
prolific source is the ordinary stable
How fast do flies multiply"
IAN ordinary house-fly will lay 100
eggs during its life and 80 per cent. of
them will be Matched out. During the
NJ
generations of flies will be produced
so you can make the calculation your
self. Every female fly is the progenitor
of millions of flies during a single sum-
mer.
There are four or five kinds of house
flies. The most common known to en-
tomologists is the 'Musca domestica,'
mediums size grayish fly with its mouth
spread out for sucking up liquid sub
stances. 1t cannot bite. There is an
other fly called the 'Stomoxya calci
trans which resembles it closely, but
differs in having an important appen-
dage that is built to pierce the skin.
1t is second in abundance. Both of
these flies are chiefly bred in manure.
In our experience and those of other
entomologists, it has been discovrd that
they will seldom lay their eggs in any
thing else,
There are several other kinds of
flies, but these two are the most COM
mon, and to them we owe the nuisance
that housewives suffer The eggs are
Matched into larvae within twenty-four
hours after they are laid They re-
main in the larval state from five to
seven days and in the pupal state sim
liar time The verge life of fly Is ten to
fourteen days"
Does the fly serve any useful pur-
pose?"
mot so far as we have ever discov-
cred" said DIR. Howard, land 1t does
a great deal more injury than people
commonly suppose. We are accustomed
to think of flies simply as nuisance,
but they are undoubtedly the carriers of
contagion, as was abundantly proved
during the war Of the rebellion and also
in the camps of our army last summer.
It is the judgment Of the highest author
tiles that a considerable part of the
typhoid fever was due to the flies in
the camp.-Chicago Record.