The evening times., 1899-12-25
TOADS AND BATS.
Their jsefulncss in Destroying TrOu-
blcsome Insects.

(From the Bangor Industrial Record.)
As a result of experiments with toads
and bats. it has been demonstrated that a
house. or even community, can be rid
OF various troublesome insects. including
flies and mosquitoes. These experiments
were made by Prof. Clinton F. Hodge, of
Clark University. Worcester. Mass. Prof.
Hodges first experiment was with the
toad. Il constructed small pen in my
garden" he said. land in it. in a pan of
water. installed a male and female toad.
To attract 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 killing the flies attracted by
il. l watched one toad snap up eighty-six
house flies in less than ten minutes.
''One day l gathered a quantity of rose
bugs in a tin box and began TO feed the
bugs to a toad. At first l did not count,
but finding his appetite so good. l started
to count. When had counted over eighty
bugs and the toad showed no signs Of
Wishing to conclude his meal l picked him
up. Previous 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. caterpil-
lars. moths. June bugs, weevils, snails
house. a room may be cleared of cock
reaches by leaving toad in it over night
"A single toad may destroy over 2CC0
worms during the months of May. June
and July. and one OF these harmless Great
ures may do gardener service to the
amount OF S19.SS each season, and yet he
can raise $4,000 werti: of tOads at an ex-
peuse of not mere than 20 cents
Farmers in England buy them, paying s.
l. II. -.
flower beds and hard5ns. For household
purposes q small number OF toads could be
given homes in an aquT rum. 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 a foot
wide and two feet long, the top OF which
is kept open. IL is only necessary TO put
in two or three toads, provide them with
shelter, with dish OF water in one corner,
and then keep them supplied with bits Of
raw meat and any other refuse matter cal
culated to attract flies"
In speaking of the bat. Prof Hodge said.
I'VE have no animal more interesting
and probably none more valuable, and GER
tianly none less understood and more abus-
ed, 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 pestif-
erous night flying insects, like mosquitoes,
the bat is almost our sole dependence, 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 l found nine of the
grubs of this insect in minute. CHANGING
to go to another orchard, hardly a mile
away l found only four OF the grubs in
an hours search. There is an old barn
near by. in which live a colony of between
10 and 100 bats. The owner informed me
that his apples were always free from
worms