Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1900-01-03
BUY TOADS AND BATS.
Farmers in England Keep Them to
Destroy Insects
Whole Communities May Be Kept
Free from Flies and Mosquitoes
by the Ugly But Harmless
Creatures.

As result of experiments with toads
and bats, il has been demonstrated that
a house, or even a community can be
rid of various troublesome insects, in
Guiding flies and mosquitoes These eX-
perimenis were made by Prof. Clinton
7. Hodge, of Clark university Worces-
ter, Mass. Prof. Hodges first experi-
ment was with the toad. Il constructed
a small pen 10 my garden he said, and
in it, in a pan Of water, installed male
and female toad. To attract food for
them l placed within the Enclosure bits
of meat and bone. The results were as
satisfactory as they we're unexpected.
The toads spent most of the time sitting
within reaching distance Of the bait and
killing the flies attracted by it.
watched one toad snap up Sc house flies
in less than ten minutes.
Zone day | gathered a quantity of
rose bugs in a tin box and began TO feed
the bugs to a toad. AT first | did not
count, but, finding his appetite SO good,
] started to count. When, had counted
over so bugs and the toad showed no
signs of wishing to conclude his meal, |
picked him up. Previous to my begin
ming TO count he had taken anywhere
from ten to 20 bugs.
Il found the toad equally greedy for
rose beetles, canker worms, ants, cater
pillars, moths, June bugs, weesils,
snails and many other insects. So, too,
in house, room may be cleared of
coelroaches by leaving toad in it over
night.
"A single toad may destroy over 1900
worms during the mouths Of May, June
and July, and one of these harmless
creatures may well do a gardener serv-
ice to the amount of $19.s5 each season,
and yet he can raise $1,000 worth of
toads at an expense of not more than 20
cents.
Farmers in England buy them, pay
ing as high as $24 per 100, for use in
their flower beds and gardens. For
household purposes small number 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 a sort
of cage of wire screen, a 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 shell.
ters, a dish of water in one corner, and
then keep it supplied with bits of raw
neat and any other refuse matter cal
aulated to attract flies.'
In speaking of the bat Prof. Hodge
said: I'VE have no animal more inter
esting and probably none more valu
able, and certainly none more misunder
stood and 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 pestiferous night
fling insects, like mosquitoes, the bat is
almost our sole dependence, and, as he
is known to hunt insects afoot, as wei
as on the wing, he is also of some value
for larvae that do not fly.
MY attention was turned to the bal
through the Goblin moth, the insect tc
blame for most worm-eaten apples. III
an orchard near my home found nine
of the grubs of this insect in a minute
CHANGING to go into another orchard
hardly mile away, | found only foui
OF the grubs in an hours search. There
is an old barn near by, in which live q
colony of between rs and 100 bats. The
owner informed me that his apples were
always free from worms.-N. Y. Herald