78 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE CHEBSB-FLT. 



BY X . A . 



W I L L A ft D 



[From the Western Rural of August ID, 1SG9.] 



Most dairymen understand pretty well the 

 habits of the cheese-fly. Many, however, do 

 not know how to provide against its. depreda- 

 tions. Some ppople pi'ofess to be fond ofskip- 

 pery cheese, and regard it as an index of what 

 the English understand as "a cheese full of 

 meat," that is, rich in butter. And it must 

 be confessed that the cheese-fly has great parti- 

 ality for the best goods iu the curing house. 

 They do not so readily attack your " "White 

 Oak," and skim-milk varieties, hence the notion 

 that cheese affected with the fly is rich in but- 

 ter is not so far out of the way. 



It is an old adage that " there is no account- 

 ing for tastes, ■' and whatever may be the mer- 

 its of skippery cheeses the demand for them is 

 exceedingly small. Indeed, they usually go to 

 the pig-pen or the ducks as food for a lower or- 

 der of creatures than mau. Immense losses are 

 sustained every year on account of skippery 

 cheese. Sometimes thousands of pounds in 

 factories are tainted iu this way, and the cheese 

 has to be sold for what it will bring, while a 

 portion is not unfrequently so badly affected 

 that it has to be thrown away at the factory. 



The primarj' cause of skippery cheese, of 

 course, is want of care. Cheese in hot weather 

 should be closely examined every day. They 

 require to be turned once "a day in order to facil- 

 itate the curing process. The bandages and 

 sides are to be rubbed at the time of turning in 

 order to brush off or destroy any nits of the fly 

 which may happen to be deposited about the 

 cheese. If there are cracks in the rind, or if 

 the edges of the bandage do not fit snugly, they 

 should at once be attended to, since it is at these 

 points that the fly is most likely to make a safe 

 deposit of its eggs. The cracks and checks in 

 the cheese should be filled up with particles of 

 cheese that have been ci-ushed under a knife to 

 make them mellow and plastic. AYhen once 

 tilled, a strip of thin tough paper oiled and laid 

 over the repaired surface will serve as a further 

 protection of the x^arts. The cheese in the 

 checks soon hardens and forms a new rind. 

 Deep and bad looking checks may be repaired 

 iu this way so as to form a smooth surface 

 scarcely to be distinguished from the sound 

 parts of the cheese. It is a great mistake to 

 send cheese that have deep checks or broken 

 rinds to market. For, in addition to their lia- 

 bility to be attacked by the fly, they have the 

 appearance of being imperfect, and are justly 

 regarded with suspicion. A few such cheeses 

 iu a lot will injure the whole, causing a larger 

 depreciation in price on the whole lot than if 

 the imperfect cheeses had been separated from 

 the rest and^ sold by themselves for what they 

 would bring. 



Some dairymen think that a darkened curing 

 room is best for cheese and at the same time is 

 the best protection against the fly. "We think 

 this is a mistake. Cheese cures with the best 

 flavor when it is exposed ts light, and besides 

 it can be examined more minutely from time to 



time, and freed from any depredations of 

 skippers. 



August and September are generally the 

 worst months in the year to protect the cheese 

 against attacks of the fly. Some years the 

 trouble is greater than others, and various 

 means have been resorted to for the purpose of 

 avoiding the pest, such as rubbing the cheese 

 over with a mixture of oil and cayenne pepper. 

 These things generally do not amount to much, 

 and are not to be recommended. The best pro- 

 tection is cleanliness, sharp eyes and good care 

 of the cheese. "VV"henever a lodgment of skip- 

 pers has been made, they must at once be re- 

 moved. Sometimes it will be necessary to cut 

 down into the cheese and remove the nest with 

 the knife, but if the colony is young and small 

 in numbers, a thick oiled paper plastered over 

 the affected part so as to exclude the air, will 

 bring the pests to the surface when they may be 

 removed. The oiled paper should again be re- 

 turned to its place and the skippers removed 

 from time to time, until all are destroyed. 



If skippers begin to trouble the cheese, the 

 best course to be adopted is to commence at 

 once, and wash the ranges or tables on which 

 the cheese is placed with hot whey. This will 

 remove all accumulation of grease and nits 

 about the ranges, giving a clean surface which 

 does not attract the flies. If the cheeses also are 

 washed in the hot whey and rubbed with a dry 

 cloth, the labor of expelling the trouble from 

 the curing rooms will be greatly facilitated. 

 We have seen this course adopted with entire 

 success in many instances, when much time and 

 labor had previously been employed without 

 effecting the desired object. 



Keep the curing room clean and sweet ; see 

 that the cheeses have a smooth rind, that the 

 bandages are smoothly laid at the edges ; turn . 

 and rub the cheeses daily, and there need be no 

 trouble from the cheese-fly. 



[Note by the Editok. — It is only unprofes- 

 sional readers who will need to be told, that the 

 'Cheese-fly (Piophila casei) is one of the numer- 

 ous noxious insects that have been imported 

 into this country from Europe — that it is a small 

 black fly less than half the size of a common 

 House-fly, and belongs to the great Order of 

 Two-winged Flies (JDiptera) and to the great 

 3£ijbsca family in that Order, the same Family to 

 which also appertain the House-fly, and our 

 vai^ious Meat-flies and Blow-flies — that the 

 female deposits her eggs exclusively on cheese — 

 that these eggs soon afterwards hatch out and 

 produce whitish maggots called " skippers," 

 because these maggots have the remarkable fac- 

 ulty of taking their tails in their mouths and 

 then by suddenly releasing their hold skipping 

 to a distance of several inches — that when full 

 grown the " skippers " have their skins con- 

 tract lengthways, harden, turn of a mahogany 

 brown color, and assume an oval form techni- 

 cally called " a coarctate pupa " — and that from 

 these pupoB the winged flies soon afterwards 



