FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



early spring adults have probably been hibernating in 

 the house. The larvae of the Lesser House-fly live in 

 waste vegetable matter, in the manure of different animals, 

 and especially in human excrement. They have also 

 been found in yellow-jacket (Vespa) nests where they were 

 probably cleaning up the debris. 



MUSCIDJE 



Insect pests, as well as diseases, were formerly taken 

 very much as matters of course. Indeed, some people 

 went further and gave reasons why they should be con- 

 sidered blessings exceedingly well disguised. We have 

 long since started to fight all diseases by all the means 

 we can command and when this fight leads us to certain 

 insects which are the transmitters of these diseases, it is 

 only logical that we should combat those particular insects 

 as well. Although this little book mentions a large num= 

 ber of the insects which injure our persons and pocket- 

 books, such represent a very small proportion of all insects; 

 they have been given space because they are common and 

 asked about. The best that can be said of common house- 

 flies is that they are scavengers; but they are scavengers 

 which come from their dirty surroundings to our tables 

 without disinfecting themselves. Furthermore, however 

 useful they may have been in the past, we are now able to 

 attend to cleaning up the civilized portions of the world 

 in a more cleanly way than by employing creatures which 

 insist upon tracking the disease-laden dirt over our food 

 and our persons. 



According to Dr. L. O. Howard, 22,808 out of 23,087 

 flies actually captured on fly-paper in dining-rooms were 

 Musca domestica. The remaining three hundred, or so, 

 consisted of a number of different species. I have ar- 

 ranged a chart (see p. 265) which shows that the 

 Common House-fly, the Disease-carrying Fly, is the only 

 species which is very abundant both in dining-rooms and 

 on one of several things which we dislike to think of in 

 connection with dining-rooms. "Swat the fly " but, better 

 still, prevent its breeding by doing away with, or screening, 

 all possible breeding places within a mile of your house. 



264 



