Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-08-25
KILL ENEMY OF BABY
DUTY OF ALL IS TO DO AWAY
WITH THE FLY.
AZ % Dissemination of Disease II 10
Recognized That This Pest Can
In No Way Find an
Equal.

prepared by the Children's Bureau. United
States Department OF LABOR a.
No one likes to have single ny
and, much less, swarm of them Duzz-
ing about him. or lighting on his food.
But in addition to being nuisance
the f1y is also a real source of danger,
owing to the fact that he may carry
the germs of disease from the SICK 10
the well. Typhoid fever is known to
be distributed in this way, and 1t Is
believed that other forms OF illness,
including diarrhea, are also carried
about on the hairy feet and legs OF the
ordinary house or typhoid" fly.
On this account, it is especially the
baby who needs to be protected from
flies. Awake or asleep, he needs it.
His milk should be kept out of their
reach, and his bed or his sleeping
room should be carefully screened
against them. if it is not possible to
have the whole house and the porch
screened.
The flies that get into the house in
spite of screens should be trapped,
poisoned or swatted, but far more eff
fective than any of these measures is
that of destroying the fly larvae before
they hatch into full-grown flies.
The favorite breeding place If the
common house fly is in horse manure.
In a pile of thousand pounds there
may be half a million maggots ready
to hatch, unless they are destroyed In
the Iarval stage, as the eggs are
called.
Various substances have been sug-
gested for use upon horse manure in
order to destroy the fly maggots.
Among these are iron sulphate, kero-
sene, chloride of lime, hellebore and
borax Some of these are too expen-
sive for continued use, and some, such
as borax, when used in too large guam
titles, may be injurious to the crops
upon which the manure so treated is
used.
The United States department OF
agriculture has recently recommended
powdered hellebore as a cheap, safe
and effective substance for the treat
ment of manure. "One-half pound of
powdered hellebore mixed with ten
gallons of water is sufficient to kill the
larvae in eight bushels. or ten cubic
feet of manure In most places helle-
bore is obtainable in 100-pound lots at
a cost of II cents pound. This makes
the cost of the treatment a little less
than seven-tenths of cent per bushel
of manure A liberal estimate of the
output of manure is two bushels day
per horse"
After the summer has advanced, the
effort must be made to keep each indi-
vidual home as free from the pest as
can be done with screens, fly papers.
traps and swatters.
Garbage pals must be kept COW
cred, and no refuse of any sort should
be allowed to accumulate about the
premises, to provide breeding and
feeding places. AS in most other
things, prevention is far better than
cure; the time for preventive meas
ures to be most effective is in April
and May, when the fly crop is small.
There are great many kinds of fly
traps on the market. Such traps can
be made at home with little trouble.
and the department of agriculture,
Washington, will send directions upon
request not only for traps, but for
methods of destroying the eggs be-
fore they hatch into flies. "a home
made fly trap for 20 cents, and Bulle-
tin 245.)
EIv Poison