178 THE HOUSE FLY—DISEASE CARRIER 
Fly Traps and Fly Poisons 
In the effort to destroy the flies which have gained 
access to houses many devices have been invented, and 
many of them have been patented. Nearly all of the 
traps which are on the market are reasonably effective, 
and it will be unfair to mention any one or two or three 
where so many are good. They are all cheap and it 
is a simple matter for one to test them one after an¬ 
other until the most satisfactory one is found. Very 
effective traps are made of sticky fly paper—flat sheets 
to be laid on tables, bookcases, or in other places. 
A recent idea, gained from the observation that flies 
in rooms where there is no food seem frequently to 
rest by preference upon vertically hanging cords of 
window curtains, on the supports of chandeliers, and 
objects of that general character, has resulted in several 
arrangements by which strips of sticky fly paper are 
suspended in this way, and this has given in many 
cases satisfactory results. One of the writer’s friends, 
in experimenting with one of these devices, examined 
the room carefully and noted eleven flies. After the 
apparatus was hung he found rather to his surprise 
that he had caught thirteen flies! He became rather 
enthusiastic over the merits of the device. These 
sticky fly papers are not poisoned, and depend for their 
efficacy upon the catching of the flies. 
Poisoned fly papers were at one time very much in 
use and are still in some localities. The old dispensa¬ 
tories give an account of a harmless fly poison prepared 
