INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE HOUSE- 

 HOLD 



There are many insect pests that injure the food- 

 stuffs, clothing, carpets, rugs, etc., of the household, 

 and the aggregate loss caused by these insects is 

 very large. Moreover, many of these pests are 

 now known to be the disseminators of certain hu- 

 man diseases, so that they have become important 

 from more than one point of view; the more im- 

 portant of these household pests are discussed in 

 the following pages. 



House-fly (Mttsca domcstica) 

 Order — Diptera. Manual, p. 482 



The house-fly lays its white eggs in manure, de- 

 caying vegetable material and other garbage: they 

 hatch in 12 to 24 hours into the whitish maggots: 

 the maggots reach maturity in 5 or 6 days and 

 change to pup^e which are enclosed in dark-brown 

 puparia; these rest quietly about 5 days and then the 

 adult comes forth: the adults carry typhoid fever, 

 cholera, tuberculosis, dysentery, and other enteric 

 diseases. 



Control — Draw out stable manure twice a week 

 or put it in a dark closet; treat manure piles with 

 hellebore or borax; put yi pound of hellebore in 

 10 gallons of water and sprinkle it over 8 bushels 

 (10 cu. ft.) of manure or sprinkle 10 ounces of 

 powdered borax over 8 bushels of the manure and 

 then wet down with 2 or 3 gallons of water; build 

 a modern fly-tight toilet; screen whole house espe- 



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