The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-08-12
GOVERNMENT TELLS HOW
BEST TO SWAT" THE FLY

Washington, D. c., Aug. s. - An ed
vocational crusade against the house
fly in which every proper means OF
publicity should be employed is urg
ed by the department of agriculture
In new farmers bulletin, No. $50
it is stated that the danger from the
house fly must be brought more forci
bly, home to the people before health
officers can do effective work. BY the
expenditure of sufficient pains, any
one individual may prevent flies
breeding on his premises, but this
will not rid him of the danger from
flies if his neighbors are careless.
There is, however, no excuse at the
present time for permitting flies to
breed in anything like the numbers
in which they have done in the past.
The vast majority of flies develop
from eggs which are laid in horse
manure, and there are two simple
ways of destroying the larva, as the
young insects or maggots, which
hatch from the eggs are called.
Sprinkling the manure heap with a
solution prepared by adding one-half
pound of powdered hellebore to ten
gallons of water will destroy, &C.
cording to recent experiments, from
IS to SO per cent of the larvae in the
manure. If this is not done, the use
of a simple maggot trap will prove
equally effective. By experiments
carried on by the bureau of entom-
oLogy of the U. S. department of agri-
culture at the Maryland agricultural
college, it was found that the trap
used there destroyed fully SO per cent
of all the maggots or larvae breeding
in a given lot of manure.
Such a trap is simplicity itself,
consisting merely Of Slated plat
form standing about one foot high
upon a concrete floor which is sur
rounded by rim or wall of con-
crete four inches high. The floor slopes
a little toward one corner in order
to allow liquid from the manure to
be drained off into small cistern.
Ordinarily, however, this drain is
plugged with stopper and the con-
crete floor filled with water to depth
of one inch in the shallowest part.
Each morning the manure is removed
from the stable and heaped upon the
platform. The flies lay their eggs on
1t as usual and the larvae hatch as
usual The larvae, however, when
about to enter the pupal or resting
stage, preliminary 70 emerging as
adult flies, invariably endeavor to
migrate, crawling about in search of
a suitably dry spot in which to enter
into pupation In the maggot trap,
therefore, as soon as the larvae at
kempt to leave the manure on which
they have been feeding, they fall
through the openings in the Slated
platform into the water below and are
drowned. Each week the drain should
lie opened and the dead maggots
washed from the floor of the trap
into the cistern nearby. A platform
1Ox2O feet in size will hold the man.
nure from four horses during period
of four months, or from twenty-five
horses for about twenty days. The
Stats should be one-inch strips with
one-half to one-inch space between
shem.
Experience with maggot traps has
brought out the fact that these are
most effective when the manure is
kept compactly heaped and well moist
ened. This is due to the larvae's de-
sire to find comparatively dry place
in which to pupate and, consequently
they crawl away from wet manure.
Whenever possible, therefore, it is ad,
vantageous to preserve all the liquid
manure, both in order to moisten the
pile and because of its own fertiliz'
ing value. In the second place, the
platform should stand not less than
one foot above the concrete floor in
order that the floor may be more east
ly cleaned. A third point is that old
manure does not attract flies fo1
breeding. A lot of manure need re-
main on the maggot trap but ten days
in order to prevent any breeding TAX
ing place in it. nau
The maggot trap thus presents the
great advantage of being easily con
structed and cheap. That is it effec
tive, the experiments at the Maryland
Agricultural college have conclusively
shown. There it was found that it de-
stroyed 80 per cent Of the larvae
breeding in the manure and that the
number of flies around the college
kitchen was reduced by between 81
and rs per cent. That the reduction in
the number of flies was not equal to