CONTROL WITHIN THE HOUSE 73 



escape from the traps, especially as side window light 

 changes and daylight fades. In these fly traps it is 

 only the perseverance of the prisoners in struggling 

 towards outer light which prevents their exit by the 

 entrance aperture. 



Stickfast adhesive papers and suspended tapes and 

 strings look very effective when seen crowded with 

 accumulated captures ; but, again, these " exhibition " 

 appearances are as deceptive in suggestions of real 

 efficiency as are the crowded cage traps last mentioned ; 

 moreover, sticky messes are not commendable or con- 

 venient articles for placing where most wanted. 

 Truly, suspensory strings are attractive resting resorts 

 for dancing males, but the worst agents of Beelzebub 

 are the females, which have a keener appetite for food 

 and for pestering humanity. 



There remain for consideration insecticide poisons. 

 A great choice of materials can be supplied by the 

 chemist's shop, and various methods of using them 

 have been recommended. In old times country people 

 prepared decoctions of Amanita muscaria, the fly toad- 

 stool, a large orange-scarlet, or crimson, mushroom- 

 shaped fungus commonly appearing in autumn in 

 woods where birch trees abound. Strange to say, such 

 decoction will poison flies of many kinds, although 

 they, and many different creatures, feed with impunity 

 on other fungi which are more deadly poisonous to 

 mankind. 



Effective poisons are such good exterminators of 

 flies, that the main consideration is how to safely and 

 most suitably employ them. There are some people 

 who have an invincible aversion to the mere thought 



