268 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



lish and keep in repair and extend the salt marsh drainage estab- 

 lished by the state. The outlook for the early elimination of the 

 Jersey mosquito is at the present time bright. 



President P, J. Parrott: The next paper on the program is 

 entitled ''Experiments with House-Fly Baits and Poisons," by Mr. 

 A. W. Morrill. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH HOUSE-FLY BAITS AND POISONS 



By A. W. Morrill, Phoenix, Arizona 



While it is generally accepted that as a rule the most practicable 

 means for the control of the house-fly is the prevention of its breeding, 

 work directed against the adult insects, particularly in rural districts, 

 must be relied upon to a considerable extent as a protection against 

 this disease-carrying pest. There are many situations where fly 

 traps, fly poisons and even sticky fly paper are the only practicable 

 means of protection and many more where such means are valuable 

 accessories to the more desirable methods of protection. 



The experiments upon which this paper is based were planned with 

 the view to securing more definite information than was available 

 concerning the comparative attraction for the house-fly possessed by 

 some of the many materials used and publicly recommended for use 

 as fly trap baits or fly poisons. This information was especially 

 needed for the determination of standards for comparison with cer- 

 tain commercially exploited mixtures made by secret formula^ and 

 claimed by the promoter to be superior to all other known fly poi- 

 sons and baits. While the results meet this primary object, the con- 

 tinuation of the experiments promises further results of practical as 

 well as scientific interest. In these experiments the writer has been 

 materially aided by Mr. George Acuff, crop pest inspector at Phoenix. 



Unless otherwise stated the baits or. poisons were exposed in watch 

 glasses in the bottom of small dome-shaped fly traps of the style 

 devised by Professor Hodge. This provided for the exposure of equal 

 amounts of the materials which were being tested. The traps were 

 placed out of doors in a row about fifteen inches apart and so far as 

 could be determined by general observations there was no material 

 advantage in one location over another. The period of exposure was 

 from three to four hours during the warmest part of the day. After 

 exposure the flies were killed by means of carbon bisulfid fumes and 

 the number captured recorded in each case. Where the baits were 

 poisoned, dead flies found in the bottom pan-like section of the trap 



