HOUSE FLIES. 11 
Not only must all horse stables be cared for, but chicken yards, pig- 
geries, and garbage receptacles as well, and absolutely sanitary privies 
are prime necessities. Directions for building and caring for such 
privies will be found in Farmers’ Bulletin No. 463. The dry-earth 
treatment of privy vaults is unsatisfactory. Kerosene should be 
used. 
During the summer of 1897 a series of experiments was carried out 
with the intention of showing whether it would be possible to treat a 
manure pile in such a way as to stop the breeding of flies. The writer’s 
experience with the use of air-slaked lime on cow manure to prevent 
the breeding of the horn fly (Hematobia serrata Rob.-Desv.) suggested 
Fig. 8.—The dung fly (Sepsis violacea): Adult, puparium, and details. All 
enlarged. (Author’s illustration.) 
experimentation with different lime compounds. It was found to be 
perfectly impracticable to use air-slaked lime, land plaster, or gas 
lime with good results. Few or no larve were killed by a thorough 
mixing of the manure with any of these three substances. Chlorid 
of lime, however, was found to be an excellent maggot killer. Where 
1 pound of chlorid of lime was mixed with 8 quarts of horse manure, 
90 per cent of the maggots were killed in less than 24 hours. At the 
rate of one-fourth of a pound of chlorid of lime to 8 quarts of manure, 
however, the substance was found not to be sufficiently strong. 
Chlorid of lime, though cheap in Europe, costs at least 34 cents a 
pound in large quantities in this country, so that the frequent treat- 
ment of a large manure pile with this substance would be out of the 
question in actual practice. 
459 
