The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-08-24
Destroy the Fly and
Care for Baby.

Care for Baby.
When the modern mother sings
"Baby-bye, here's fly to her infant,
she changes the second line of the
old nursery song to read let rs
Swat him, you and l." The common
house-fy is no longer an object of
tolerant interest, but has become an
object of hatred and distrust. He is
known to be the principal factor in
the distribution Of the germs of ty-
phoid.
Especially is he regarded as the
enemy Of the baby, as there is rea-
son to believe that he carries about
the germs of summer diarrhoea and
leaves them behind him, with other
filth, when he lights on the nipple
of the feeding bottle, or crawls over
the saucer of cereal, or falls in the
milk. Thus he is real danger, not
only to the baby but to the whole
family, and every effort should be
made to do away with him.
Flies may be kept out of the house
to considerable extent by using
screens at the doors and windows
and those that get inside may be
trapped, poisoned, or swatted. But
better than any Of these methods is
to destroy the flies in the larval stage
and thus prevent them from Matching
The following information is fur
nished by the department of agricul-
ture.
"a safe and effective weapon
against the typhoid or house-fy has
been found in powdered hellebore by
scientists Of the department of ag-
riculture. Flies lay their eggs chiefly
in stable manure. Powdered helle-
bore mixed with water and sprinkled
over the manure, will destroy the
larvae which are Matched from the
eggs. Since powdered hellebore is
readily obtainable, this puts in the
hands of everyone remedy for one
of the pests that has been found dan
gerous as well as troublesome. Pow
dered heIlebore will not kill adult
flies, which must be swatted OF
trapped.
''It has long been known that flies
breed in manure but previous methods
of destroying the larvae there by the
use of strong chemicals have beer
open to the objection that the treat.
ment under some conditions lessened
the fertilizing value Of the manure
or actually injured vegetation. This
is not true Of powdered helIebore
Government experiments have shown
that the hellebore is entirely decom.
posed in the course Of the fermenta,
ton of the manure and that even II
excessive quantities it does no harm
except to the larvae it is intended t.
destroy. Chickens picking in manure
treated with it suffer no i'll effects.
"0ne-half pound of powdered helle,
bore mixed with 10 gallons of waite,
is sufficient to kill the larvae in {
bushels, or 10 cubic feet of manure
The mixture should be sprinkled care,
fully over the pile, especial attention
being paid to the outer edges. In
most places hellebore is obtainable il
100 pound lots at cost of IL cents &
pound. This makes the cost of the
treatment little less than seven,
tenths of cent per bushel of manure
A liberal estimate of the output Of
manure is two bushels a day pei
horse. The money involved is, there.
fore trifing in comparison with the
benefits to the individual and the
community from the practical elm,
nation of the disease-spreading fly.
Although fresh manure is the fav,
orite breeding spot, flies lay their eggs
in other places as well, such as out.
houses, refuse piles, etc. In these
places, from which no manure is
taken on the fields, considerable saw.
ing may be effected through the sub.
Btitution Of borax for powdered helle.
bore. Applied at the rate of 0.6G
sounds per bushels of manure. borax