The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-06-12
How to Get Rid of House Flies.

ny nuisance, Nr. IL. ". Howard, en-
tomologist Of the United Slater de-
partment Of agriculture, SENDS the
following:
The stable of the United States de-
partment of agriculture, in which
about twelve horses are kept, is stu
ated about 100 yards behind the main
building of the d -partment, and about
80 yards from the building in which
the division Of entomology is situated.
The stable has always been very care
fully kept. The manure has been
thoroughly swept up every morning,
carried outside Of the stable and de-
posted in pile behind the building.
This pile, after aocumulating for
week Or ten days. or sometimes Two
weeks, is carried off by the gardeners
and spread upon distant portions of
the grounds. IL al tunes in the sum-
mer this manure pile has beer swarm
ing with the maggots Of the house fly.
It is safe to say that on an average
many thousands Of perfect flies issu d
from :, every day, and that at least a
large sha.e % the aes %h:ch constant,
ly bothered the employees in the two
buildings mentioned came from this
source.
On the asis Of the experiments of
1897, an attempt was made, beginning
carly in April, 1897. to prevent the
breeding Of house flies about the de-
partment by the treatment of this ma
nure pile with kerosene. The attempt
was begun early IN April, and was
carried on for some weeks. While
undoubtedly hundreds Of thousands Of
flies were destroyed in the course of
this work, it was found by the end Of
May that it was far from perfect, since
used at an economical rate the kero-
sene could not be made TO penetrate
throughout the whole pile of manure,
even when copiously washed down
with water. A considerable proper
tion of house fy larvae escaped in
jury from this treatment, which at the
same time was found, even at at eco
nomioal cost, to be laborious, and
such measure in fact as almost no
one could be induced to practical y
adopt.
There remained, however, another
measure which has been suggested by
the writer in an article on the house
Ay published in 1895, namely, the pre-.
paration Of an especial receptacle for
the manure, and this was very readily
done. A closet 6x8 feet had been
built in the corner of the stable near
est the manure pile. 1t had door
opening into the stable proper, and
also a window. A door was built in
the outside wall of this closet, and the
stablemen were directed to place no
more manure outside the building; in
other words, to abolish the outside
manure pile, and in the future to
throw all of the manure collected each
morning into this closet, the window
| of which in the meantime had been
furnished with q wire screen. The
preparations were completed by the
middle Of June, and barrel Of chle1.
ide Of lime was put in the corner OF
the closet. Since that time every
morning the manure Of the stable ie
thrown into the closet and a small
shovel full of chloride of lime is scat.
tered over it. AT the expiration Of
ten days or two weeks the gardeners
open the outside door, shovel the
manure into a cart and carry it of te
be thrown upon the ground.
| Judging from actual examinations
of the manure pile, the measure is
eminently successful. Very few flies
are breeding in the product Of tht
stable, which formerly gave birth Il
many thousands daily. After thil
measure had been carried on for two
weeks, employees Of the department
who had no knowledge of the worl
that was going on were asked wheth
er they had noticed any diminution II
the number Of flies in the Office. Per
sons in all Of the Offices on the frs
floor Of the two buildings were asket
this question. In svsry Office except
one the answer was That q marked de
crease had been noticed, so that th
work must be considered to have beer
successful.
The account OF remedial work he
been given with some detail since j
shows so plainly that care and clean
Illness combined with such an arrange
ment as that described will in an in
dividual stable measurably affect tn
fly nuisance in neighboriug buildings