174 SANITARY ENTOMOLOGY 



it requires more than a few days' droppings to produce a very favorable 

 breeding situation. The cleaning of houses is of course facilitated by 

 having the dropping boards readily removable or the roosts hinged so as 

 to give free access to the boards. In the South, dropping boards are not 

 being advocated and very few places are provided with them. In such 

 houses a concrete floor is very desirable to make cleaning easy, but seldom 

 found. Sprinkling the dropping boards or floors with air-slaked lime or 

 dry sand helps to take up the moisture from the manure and reduce the 

 attraction for flies. 



In small places where gardens are available chicken manure can be 

 used to advantage as fertilizer. Where it cannot be disposed of in this 

 way promptly it should be placed in a box under cover from rain and 

 treated with borax as previously recommended. 



Dead fowls breed many dangerous species of flies and they should be 

 disposed of promptly either by a scavenger wagon in a city, or by burning 

 in rura^l districts. 



The care of yards and houses on large poultry farms should be 

 handled in practically the same way as the small one just discussed. 

 There is usually less trouble, however, from these large plants as they 

 receive more constant attention than the small ones. Pigeonries are also 

 a source of some fly breeding as the pigeon coops usually are placed in an 

 inaccessible place and become very filthy. The houses should be made 

 readily accessible and cleaned occasionally. Pigeons should be kept under 

 controlj and porcelain dishes provided for nests will facilitate cleaning. 



The frequent and thorough cleaning up of the manure from all domes- 

 tic animals and fowls tend to reduce the troubles among them from intes- 

 tinal parasites. Spraying with standard disinfecting solutions has the 

 eff'ect of reducing the attractiveness for flies, of excrement, soiled floors, 

 etc., in addition to the germicidal action. Cleanliness and spraying of 

 premises also increase the efficiency of fly traps. 



