Evening star., 1925-07-05
U.S.WAR ON INSECTS
GUIDED BY SCIENCE.
Skilled Men Test Methods of
determination on Fairfax
County Farm.


County, Va, II miles away from
the Nations Capital and surrounded
by homes and estates of the well-to-
do, is 25-acre farm that raises fieas,
lice, reaches, mites, bedbugS, mos
quitoes, flies, and about $50 other in
sects that the public has not met, or
would not know. in its everyday
travels
Here skilled artisans plant, SOW and
reap harvest the four seasons of the
year. Roughly, their work is to
watch over the mother and her eggs
and when the eggs hatch and the
babies first look upon this world they
must see that the little bugs get the
chance due by their birthright. They
are guarded through early youth and
the dangerous adolescent age and
when clean. healthy adulthood is
reached they are given big dose of
poison and killed!
Four "Hatcheries" Provided.
Included in the farms equipment
are four special nurseries or hatch
cries. bearing the following entomo-
logical designations (all derived from
the Creek: TriXy, Mac, Mickey and
Pete. TriXy is a bulldog, Mac is an
Airedale, Mickey is the son of Trixy
dog. They produce a bumper crop OF
fleas which is augmented slightly by
fair acreage" turned out every so
often by two yellow cats. Further,
there are about 125 chickens in whose
fertile feathers grow the largest num-
Der of lice and mites recorded by any
coop.
There must be a reason for the eX-
istence of such an extraordinary state
ff.,t,- IT, hi e
ment of the United States and its
people are the cause. The farm is
located at Vienna. Va. and is
known as the Insecticide Test Lab
oratories of the Department of Agri-
culture, under the direction of w. S.
Abbott, entomologist, and in charge
of the enforcement of the Insecticide
Act of 1910. The farm was estab-
lished shortly after. the passage of
over it since 1912. His residence is
in Fairfax.
AbbOtt's Test Pilots"
The 4 dogs. , cats and 125 chickens
may accurately be called Mr.. Abbott's
test pilots Mr.. Abbotts duties are to
find out if preparations moving in
Interstate commerce and advertised to
kill this. or. that insect actually viii
do il. And the way he finds out is
TO take an innocent coterie of f1eas,
lice or other species of vermin and
submit them to the fangs of the rem
edy in question.
Consequently Trixy. Mac. Mickey
and Pete, the two yellow cats and the
125 chickens spend most of their time
walking about the beautiful farm.
loaded down with queer. smelling stuff
designed to kill their peculiar types
Of insects. and if by chance they do
encounter. a remedy that does the
work with deadly force and they are
deloused or deflead, some one imme-
diatefy plants some more in their fur
or feathers. and they are ready for
another dose
In Role of Benefactors.
These animals are the benefactors
of their races. They are martyrs in
the cause of cleaner living and less
scratching Whether the four dogs
are doing their colleagues a good turn
by helping eradicate all fieas is a mat
ter for the dogs to decide. Some one
has said that d dog is not happy un-
less he has a flea TO scratch at. If
that be true all dogdom enyies this
quartet.
But life for TriXy, Mac, Mickey and
Pete is not a continuous round of
scratches. Sometimes a questionable
preparation guaranteed to Kill f1eas
goes few steps farther. In one case
it not only killed the fieas, but killed
the dog. Some remedies have inflicted
burns and sores on their flea-bitten
bodies, and there is where every dog
owner owes this bunch everlasting
love, for If the injurious qualities Of
the sure-kill remedy had not been dis
covered by them your or my dear dog
might have been the victim.
Yet the odds are in favor of the
dogs, because Trixy has been the chief
test pilot for Mr.. Abbott's flea labora-
tory for the past 10 years and about
twice a year she contributes a pup or
two for civil service examination and
rating. Mickey is her latest.
The quartet get along very well.
They roam the 25 acres from morning
until night and are given the best of
food and quarters. They cayort about
the main laboratory building at will,
upstairs, downstairs and in the cellar.
They are part Of the force and are en-
titled to an equal status.
Cats in the Exclusive List.
OF the cats there cannot be said
much-they are rather exclusive and
retiring, although willing to submit
to various cat flea preparations. They
harbor a different type of flea from
the dogs, SO Mr.. Abbott says, the diff
ference, however, being so slight and
of a highly chronological technical
nature that only the dog and cat and
the scientists know the difference. He
deemed 1t useless to try to show the
Iayrnan wherein the two fieas do not
match equally.
TO increase the population Of mo-
souitoes. Mr.. Abbott said. he just
takes a tub of water and let's 1t stand.
and there you are. After the young
sters get pretty we'll on in hours the
life of mosquito, like that of an air
plane, Is measured by hours he places
a. covering over the tub with a hole
IN the center On the hole he puts a
cone, and whenever he wants few
good healthy mosquitoes to withstand
some pretty stiff poison attacks, why
he just lifts up the cone, catches them
and takes them upstairs to the room
set aside for mosquitoes and flies.