THE HOUSE FLY DISEASE CARRIER 



as our protection against Musca domestica is con- 

 cerned." 



He plans certain lines of attack, all directed against 

 the adult fly out of doors. The first of these lines con- 

 sists in the effort to trap the flies at their source of 

 food supply. On the supposition that everything in 

 the way of waste food which is attractive to flies is 

 or can be placed in garbage cans or swill barrels, he 

 believes that a double wire screen trap can be attached 

 to this receptacle in such a way as to catch every fly 

 that is attracted to it. He shows that in some cities 

 the rules of the boards of health require that all such 

 receptacles should be tightly covered. He considers 

 that this is a serious mistake, since it drives the flies 

 from the garbage into the kitchens. The garbage cans, 

 to his idea, can be made so attractive as to draw the 

 flies out of the kitchens and focus them at one spot 

 and catch them as soon as they come. As fast as the 

 traps are filled, the contents are scalded and removed 

 and fed to chickens or put into the garbage can. 



He has devised a trap attachment to garbage cans 

 with which on one occasion he caught 2,500 flies in 

 fifty-five minutes. This was back of a market in an 

 ice-cream stand. The can was baited with fish heads, 

 meat scraps, watermelon rinds and green corncobs, 

 over which the melted waste from the ice-cream freez- 

 ers was poured. The cover of this can was held up 

 by strips of metal soldered to the can so as to keep 

 about a quarter of an inch fly space entirely around 

 the can through which the flies could enter. Then a 



