The Prescott daily news., 1915-04-30
TRAP THE HOUSE FLY.

A maggot trap which will practi- cally prevent the breeding of the house fly is described in a new bulle- tin of the department, No. 200, "A Maggot Trap in practical use; An Ex- pertinent in House-Fly Control" The investigators who carried on this ex- pertinent at the Maryland Agricul- tural College declare that during Hu- gust and September at least 98 per cent of the larvae breeding in the ma nure were destroyed, and although the trap was not so efficient when the weather became colder, even then it greatly reduced the number of flies.
 The principle of the trap is simple, | It Is easy to construct, and the ex- pense is said to be probably less in the lond run than the investment which many farmers now make in screens for their dwellings and sprays and fly nets for their live stock In l its toughest outlines the trap consists of a concrete basin with latticed wooden platform erected upon it to hold the manure. The basin is con- nected by drainpipe with small concrete cistern. The bottom of the basin is filled with water into which the maggots breeding in the manure drop as they are about to turn in the pupa or scrysalis stage, and are drowned. At frequent intervals the water is run off into the cistern and then is pumped back on the manure pile. In this way all the liquid ma Enure is saved.
 The successful operation of this trap rests upon several facts connect ed with the habits of the house fly which have been thoroughly establish ed by observation. The adult fly lays its eggs in fresh manure. There they remain until the larva stage is almost over and the insects are about to en- ter the pupa or chrysalis stage. At this time a pronounced tendency to migrate is evident. In consequence, it the manure is placed upon 9 plat form with latticework bottom the larvae, while migrating will fall through these openings into the water | in the basin below. In the case of the experiments at the Maryland Ag ricutural College careful count showed that between July 25 and Oc tober 1, about 12,000 larvae were kill ed in this way. This, however, does not include the number that were pick ed up from the basin by sparrows or poultry Altogether it is estimated that during the warm weather the efficiency of the trap was probably 99 per cent. Later, when the tempera- ture was lower, the traps success was not so marked. This was accounted ! for by the fact that when the air IS much colder than the manure heap the larvae will not attempt to leave the heap and therefore will not fall into the basin. Another difficulty expert enced arose from mosquitoes using the water in the basin and the cistern to breed in. This was overcome by cleaning out the basin at regular in- tervals and by sprinkling a little oil over the surface of the water in the cistern.
 Properly constructed, such trap offers no obstacles to the convenient and economical handling of manure. It is essential, however, that each days addition to the heap should be sprinkled with sufficient water to keep the manure moist but not warm enough to cause teaching. The de- tails of the trap are contained in the bulletin already mentioned. This par ticular trap was designed to hold the manure produced by three horses for three months, but there is no reason why larger quantities should not be treated in the same way by building larger traps or by building several of smaller size.
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