TREATMENT OF BREEDING PLACES 319 



While the advent of the automobile has untloiibtedly decreased 

 the breeding places of the house-fly very materially and will con- 

 tinue to do so, there remains still much to be done in the way of 

 segregating or localising livery stables in addition to the enforce- 

 ment of the aforementioned sanitary regulations. This principle 

 is being adopted in certain places and its more general practice 

 AVtMild have an appreciable effect on the problem of tly control. 

 One great advantage of such segregation would be the increased 

 opportunities afforded to sanitary inspectors of supervising the 

 proper care and treatment of the stables and of the stable refuse. 



•Too much stress cannot be laid upon the necessity of prohibit- 

 ing the storage of stable refuse and other breeding materials of 

 the house-fly (see p. 94) in such places as railway depots, canal 

 wharves and similar places pending its removal. In the majority 

 of cases outbreaks of flies have been traced to the adoption of such 

 practices and such an abundance of flies may have dangerous 

 consequences. 



As an alternative to, but preferably in conjunction with the 

 storage of horse-manure in fly-proof receptacles, the treatment of 

 the manure with an insecticidal substance with a view to destroying 

 any house-fly larvae can be adopted wdth very marked success. 



In 1897 Howard conducted a series of experiments with a view^ 

 to discovering an insecticidal substance which could be used for 

 the destruction of the larvae in the heaps of manure in which they 

 were breeding. He found that both lime and gas lime were not 

 efficacious. In an experiment in which 8 lbs. of horse-manure 

 containing larvae were treated wuth a pint of kerosene, which was 

 w^ashed dow'n into the manure wdth water, it was found that all 

 the larvae were killed. He also found that by treating 8 lbs. of 

 well-infested horse-manure with one pound of chloride of lime all 

 the larvae were killed, but the results w^ere not satisfactory when 

 a quarter of the quantity of chloride of lime was used. On 

 experimenting with the kerosene treatment on a large scale he 

 found that it was not only laborious but also not entirely successful, 

 as is sometimes the case in the practical application on a large scale 

 of successful experimental methods. He, therefore, devised another 

 method of treating the horse-manure of stables. A chamber six 

 feet by eight feet was built in the corner of the stable with which 



