congregated in immense numbers. The different stages of the insect 

 are well illustrated in the accompanying figures (figs. 1-3), and need 

 no description. 



Taschenberg, in his Praktische Insektenkunde (iv, 1880, 102-107), 

 gives a good popular account of the house fly, but leaves the impres- 

 sion that the duration of a generation is much longer than we have 

 indicated. He also states that the female lays its eggs on a great 

 variety of substances, particularly on spoiled and moist food stuffs, 

 decaying meat, meat broth, cut melons, dead animals, in manure pits, 

 on manure heaps, and even in cuspidors, and open snuffl>oxes. The 

 fact remains, however, that horse 

 manure forms the principal ' Jmni'/i 



breeding j^lace. 



REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVES, 



A careful screening of win- 

 dows and doors during the sum- 

 mer months, with the supple- 

 mentary use of sticky fly papers, 

 is a preventive measure against 

 house flies known to everyone, 

 and there seems to be little hope 

 in the near future of much relief 

 by doing away with the breeding 

 places. A single stable in which 

 a horse is kept will supply house 

 flies for an extended neighbor- 

 hood. People living in agricul- 

 tural communities will probably 

 never be rid of the pest, but in cities, with better methods of disposal 

 of garbage and with the lessening of the number of horses and horse 

 stables consequent upon electric street railways, bicycles, and horseless 

 carriages, the time may come, and before very long, when window 

 screens may be discarded. The prompt gathering of horse manure, 

 which may be variously treated or kept in a specially prepared recep- 

 tacle, Avould greatly abate the fl_v nuisance, and city ordinances com- 

 pelling horse owners to follow some such course are desirable. Abso- 

 lute cleanliness, even under existing circumstances, will always result 

 :n a diminution of the numbers of the house fly, and in fact most 

 household insects are less attracted to the premises of what is known 

 as the old-fashioned housekeeper than to those of the othej- kiml. 



During the summer of 1897 a series of experiments Avas carried out 

 with the intention of shoAving whether it would be possible to treat a 

 manure pile in such a Avay as to stop the breeding of flies. Tlie 



[Cir. 3r>] 



¥ni. o. — The green bottle fly: a. egg masses in 

 cow dung; b, hatched egg; c, a portion of the egg 

 surface seen under the microscope; d, unhatched 

 egg; e, hirva — all enlarged except a (from Ann. 

 Rept. U. S. Dept. Agric, 1890). 



