Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-07
"Swatting" Arouses Washington.

"Swatting" Arouses Washington.
SWEATING has aroused Washington to
such acute realization of the danger of a
one time accepted member Of the sum-
mer household that possibly, not even
Mrs. Solomon in all her glory could
think up anything new to say against
him, but Have you considered the
housefiy's big, wicked brother of the
fields?
When you see, say. the "horse bot fly
pinned UP with his iniquities printed be-
meath him, there will come to you sud-
den understanding why your prosaic dob
bin becomes SO excited at the very sound
Of horsefy's buzz. 1t isn't because OF
its sting, for adult flies do not bite and
probably infiict no pain upon their VIC
tins, yet the latter seem to be much
terrified and annoyed by their presence
and make frantic efforts to escape them"
There's a reason.
The bot-fy usually attaches its eggs
to the hair of the horses shoulders or
forelegs. They are Matched from the
moisture brought TO them by the animals
licking itself and are taken In the horse
mouth and carried down into the stomach
to the walls of which the larvae attach
themselves. deriving nourishment from its
secretions. When present In large num-
bers the bots interfere seriously with
their hosts nutrition. And IL you don't
over and take a look at a photograph In
the horse fy's case. Every other bot
fly with which cattle, sheep and other
stock Of the District have to reckon has
record against him. And the only diff
ference in their histories is that each is
worse than the other.
Shown Specimens of Flies.
The other day a woman who likes to
know things was taking In a surprising
lot Of information about flies. when a
blue cloth guardian Of the exhibit came
up-zhis world is full of helpful folks
and gave her three dead flies glued to the
bottom of a box. One was surrounded
by tiny, wormy looking larvae that
aborted after being placed in cyanide
bottle" The second showed parasites
ugh! and the third was labeled. Com
mon house fly caught in the act Of land
ing on q blue bottle fly in an effort to
deposit eggs on its back.
And the woman needed no extra out
lay OF imagination to picture what hap
pens to dining tables when no swatters
are nigh.
An exhibit of 500 specimens of the 1900
known insects within a twenty-mile
radius OF Washington. trundles ones
memory like a hope way back to child
days. and rests the mind from the wear
anu tear VI 4 StTlCtly DuSiucSS nOuI.
You meet again that ferocious black
beetle that used to drone in your lighted
room down on the farm, and bump with
blind foolishness against the wall until
he fell to the floor on his back and could
mt help himself And you welcome his
history as piece Of personal news.
All Are on Pins.
Your friend. the "snake waiter and
every other dragon fly that you chased
across fields and along streams, is pres
ent on pins. With the same outstretched
wings Of bluey-green gauze and grey chif-
fon: the June bugs might be the Identical
chaps whose legs you tied with a string
Ito make eem sing and you recognize
the bulge-eyed locust that chay-chayed
In the twilight to let you know 1t was
hot. The row Of pinned-up grasshoppers
includes the rusty old fellow that used
to spit tobacco juice at you as he jumped
from somewhere to everywhere. and the
garrulous katydid that was forever CIV
Ing away family secrets-and you couldn't