47 



meat broth, cut melons, dead animals, in manure pits, on manure heaps, 

 and even in cuspidors and open snuff boxes. The fact remains how- 

 ever that horse manure forms the principal breeding;- phice, and that in 

 confinement we have been unable to rear it to maturity on any other 

 substance. 



There is not much that need be said about remedies for house tiies. 

 A careful screening of windows and doors during the summer months, 

 with the supx^lementary use of sticky fly paper, is a method known to 

 everyone, and there seems to be little hope in the near future of much 

 relief by doing away with the breeding places. A single stable in 

 which a horse is kept will supply house flies for an extended neighbor- 

 hood. People living in agTicultural communities will i)robably never 

 be rid of the pest, but in cities, with better methods of disposal of 

 garbage and with the lessening of the numbers of horses and horse 

 stables consequent upon electric street railways and bicycles, and 

 probably horseless carriages, the time may come, and before very long 

 when window screens may be discarded. The prompt gathering of 

 horse manure which may be treated with lime or kept in a speciallj' 

 prepared pit would greatly abate the fly nuisance, and city ordinances 

 compelling horse owners to follow some such course are desirable. 

 Absolute cleanliness, even under existing circumstances, will alwaj'S 

 result in a diminution of the numbers of the house fly, and. as will be 

 pointed out in other cases in this bulletin, most household insects are 

 less attracted to the premises of what is known as the old-fashioned 

 housekeeper than to those of the other kind. 



The house fly has a number of natural enemies, and, as will be i)ointed 

 out in the next section of this bulletin, the common house centii^ede 

 destroys it in considerable numbers; there is a small reddish mite 

 which frequently covers its body and gradually destroys it; it is sub- 

 ject to the attacks of hymenopterous parasites in its larval condition, 

 and it is destroyed bj^ predatory beetles at the same time. The most 

 eftective enemy, however, is a fungous disease known as Empusina muscce^ 

 which carries off flies in large numbers, particularly toward the close 

 of the season. The epidemic ceases in December, and although many 

 thousands are killed by it, the r^^markable rapidity of development in 

 the early summer months soon more than replaces the thousands thus 

 destroyed. 



L. O. II. 



THE HOUSE CENTIPEDE. 



( Scut igera forceps Kaf. ) 



This centipede, particularly within the last ten or twelve years, has 

 become altogether too common an object in dwelling houses in the 

 Middle and Northern States for the peace of mind of the inmates. It is a 

 very fragile creature, capable of very rapid movements, and elevated con- 

 siderably above the surface u]>on which it runs by very numerous long 

 legs. It may often be seen darting across floors with very great speed, 



