190 THE HOUSE FLY— DISEASE CARRIER 



that the butchers of Geneva have from time immemorial 

 prevented flies from approaching the meat which they 

 expose for sale by the use of laurel oil. This oil — 

 the odor of which, although a little strong, is not very 

 offensive — is said to drive away flies, and they are 

 said not to come near walls which have been rubbed 

 with it. Furthermore, an item in the Journal of the 

 Department of Agriculture of Western Australia states 

 that flies may be kept out of stables by using sawdust 

 which is saturated with carbolic acid diluted — one part 

 of the acid to one hundred parts of the water. It is 

 said that this sawdust scattered about stables keeps all 

 flies away. 



The idea prevails in some parts of the country that 

 the hop vine grown over a country house keeps the 

 flies away. Positive testimony to this effect has come 

 to the writer from several correspondents, but he has 

 not tested it and mentions it on hearsay evidence only. 

 An American correspondent who lived in Dalmatia, 

 for example, was troubled by flies, and was told by 

 natives to grow hop vines over the side of the house 

 towards which the flies appeared to come. She did 

 so, and states that the fly invasion was stopped after 

 the vines reached a certain height. There was, how- 

 ever, possibly some explanation of this aside from the 

 hop plants. 



Search for Breeding Places 



In a general way the character of the breeding places 

 of flies has been described in Chapter I, and the state- 



