SOME NEW SUGGESTIONS IN FLY CONTROL 
Cc. W. HOWARD. 
The last year has seen several new suggestions put before the 
public for the control of house-flies. Most of these are designed to 
destroy the fly maggots in their breeding places with the least 
amounts of effort on the part of the individual. 
The most recent suggestion is borax on manure. The United 
States Bureau of Entomology claims that the use of borax is the 
most eftective, economical, and practical substance to use for this 
purpose. It does not seem to have any effect upon the manure, so 
far as their present investigations have gone, which would render 
objectionable its use as a fertilizer. The method in use is to apply 
borax at the rate of 0.62 of a pound to eight bushels (10 cubic feet) 
of manure immediately on its removal from the stable. The appli- 
cation must be made promptly as flies lay their eggs in the freshest 
manure. It is claimed that the presence of the borax prevents 
the eggs from hatching as well as killing the maggots. The borax 
must be applied more heavily at the outer edges of the pile as the 
maggots congregate there in greater numbers. Treatment must 
be repeated with each fresh supply of manure, unless the manure 
is kept in boxes or bins, when it can be applied less frequently. 
It will have the same effect upon other manures than that from 
horses and upon garbage and refuse. It may also be used on floors 
and in crevices and cracks about stables where flies sometimes 
breed. The cost is comparatively slight; if purchased in quantity, 
it should cost only about 5 or 6 cents per pound, and the Bureau 
claims that the average cost of using borax is approximately one 
cent per horse per day. 
As soon as this recommendation of borax was published, we 
tried out some small experiments to ascertain its value on manure 
and garbage. We found that, while borax, without question, kills 
fly maggots, when it comes in contact with them, the difficulty 
seems to be to get it so distributed through the manure or garbage 
that the fly eggs or maggots cannot avoid coming into contact 
with it. This difficulty can be, to a large extent, overcome if the 
borax is thoroughly dusted over each lot of manure or garbage 
as it is added to the pile or bin. 
