The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-08-11
THE VALUE OF ToADs AND BATS.

AS a result of experiments with
toads and bats, it has been demon
strated that house, or even COM
munity, can be rid of various trouble
some insects, including flies and mos
quitoes. These experiments were
made by Professor Clinton F. Hodge,
Clark Univerity, Worcester, Mass.
Professor Hodges first experiment
was with the toad. II constructed
small pen in my garden,' he said,
land in it, in pan of water, install
ed a male and female toad. To at
tract food for them I placed within
the inclosure bits of meat and bone.
The results were as satisfactory as
tpey Msrs 5ss unexPsGtsd The m19 toads
reaching distance of the bait, and
killing the flies attracted by it. I
watched one toad snap up eighty-six
house flies in less than ten minutes.
Zone day I gathered a quantity of
rose bugs in a tin box and began to
feed the bugs to toad. At first I
did not count, but finding his appe-
tite so good I started to count. When
1 had counted over eighty, and the
toad showed no signs of wishing to
continue his meal, I picked him up.
Previous to my beginning to count he
had taken anywhere from ten to twen-
ty bugs. / found the toad equally
greedy for rose beetles, canker worms,
ants, caterpillars, moths, June bugs,
weevils, snails and many other in
sects. So, too, in house, room
may be cleared of cockroaches by
leaving a toad in it over night.
"A single toad may destroy over
1900 worms during the months of
May, June and July, and one of these
harmless creatures may well do a gar
dener services to the amount of $Io.88
each season, and yet he can raise
$40, 900 worth of toads at an expense
of not more than twenty cents.
Farmers in England buy them,
paying as high as $24 per hundred,
for use in their flower beds and gar
dens. For household purposes a
small number oftoads 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.
1 have built a sort of cage or wire
screen, foot wide and two feet long,
the top of which is kept open. 1t is
only necessary to put in two or three
toads, provide them with shelter, a
dish of water in one corner, and then
keep it supplied with bits of raw meat
and any other refuse matter calcula-
ted to attract flies"
In speaking of the bat, Professor
Hodge said: 1--WE have no animal
more interesting and probably more
sHfS sssnS and hs make pets aTs as aS nn
ny as tiny monkeys. AS destroyers
of many of our most pestiferous night
flying insects, like mosquitoes, the
bat is almost our sole dependence,
and, as he is known to hunt insects
afoot as we'll as on wing, he is also of
some value for larvae that do not fly.
"My attention was turned to the
bat through the codling moth, the in
sect to blame for most worm eaten
apples. In an orchard near my home
I found nine of the grubs of this in
sect in a minute. CHANGING to go
into another orchard, hardly mile
away, 1 found only four of the grubs
in an hours search. There is an old
barn near by, in which live colony
of between rs and 100 bats. The
owner informed me that his apples
were always free from worms. p.
Boston Evening Transcript.