382 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



exposed. Screens, sticky fly paper, fly poisons and fly traps 

 about the house will give some relief, but there is little use in 

 protecting the food after it has entered our homes if in the 

 stores or markets or dairies it has already been exposed to con- 

 tamination by thousands of flies that have visited it there. 

 The problem is a larger one than simply keeping the flies out of 

 our houses; larger but not more difficult, for the remedy is sim- 

 ple, effective and inexpensive. If the manure in which the 

 flies breed is hauled from the barn at least once a week and scat- 

 tered thinly over a field, it will dry so quickly that the flies will 

 not breed in it. If it is impracticable to scatter the manure at 

 once, it should be composted at least half a mile from any dwell- 

 ing. Most livery stables have the manure removed daily, 

 but few of them are careful to see that the bins or other places 

 where the manure is stacked before being hauled are thor- 

 oughly clean. Thus there is left in cracks or corners enough 

 manure to serve as breeding places for hundreds of thousands of 

 flies. Then, too, few stablemen take the care to clean the stalls 

 as thoroughly as they should, and many a one is surprised 

 when he finds that the flies are breeding abundantly in the stalls 

 which he considered sufficiently cleaned. Finally, after every 

 effort has been made to clean up the breeding places of flies, 

 our attention should be turned to trapping or poisoning the few 

 flies that may still appear. Many more or less efficient fly 

 traps are on the market, some of which, if properly baited, 

 do really good work. Fly papers are often quite effective, but 

 they are disgusting unless kept out of sight. A poison made by 

 adding one tablespoonful of formaldehyde to one-half a pint 

 of milk and water forms a very attractive bait and a deadly 

 poison for the flies. The best way to use it is to place a piece 

 of bread in a saucer and almost cover it with the poison, 

 milk and water. 



The Stable-fly, or Biting House-fly. This is another fly 

 that is commonly found in houses. It looks very much like the 

 common house-fly, and only a close observer will notice the 

 difference between the two. The most noticeable and impor- 

 tant difference is in the character of the mouth parts. The tip 

 of the proboscis of the house-fly is blunt and roughened, fitted 



