The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
841 
Fumigating House Flies 
Last Pall we were tormented with flies 
more than all Summer. Although the 
doors and windows were screened, they 
got in in swarms, I did not use poison 
because of the children, and every busy 
housewife knows what an amount of time 
it takes to kill them with a fly killer, and 
someone is sure to get stuck in the tangle¬ 
foot sticky llypnpct—-everything hut the 
(lies. Now if. seems as if a fumigating 
candle made especially for that purpose is 
just what almost everyone needs at this 
time during fly season, something strong 
enough to kill the flies, but not dangerous 
to human life if one should inhale some 
of the fumes. Some such fly destroyer 
would be a great blessing. It seems'as 
if some such fumigating candle could lie 
put upon the market at a reasonable cost. 
Titrc It. N.-Y. is full of helpful things, 
"'hat can you do with this suggestionV 
If one could buy a bor of a dozen candles 
for fly extermination for about GO cents 
it is safe to say most households would 
keep a box on hand rather than work for 
hours trying to kill them, and then only 
to find they have apparently not dimin¬ 
ished the number. Can’t some adequate 
means be prepared to meet the pest. Why 
not send the suggestion to some fumigat¬ 
ing candle manufacturer? mbs. m. o. 
Connecticut. 
The questions raised by the corre¬ 
spondent are interesting, quite to the 
point, and worthy of carefid consider¬ 
ation. 
When one begins to ponder the ques¬ 
tion of the quick, easy and effective 
fumigation of rooms for household in¬ 
sects there are only two substances that 
appear at the present time to he worthy 
of consideration, namely, hydrocyanic acid 
gas and sulphur. The first material, 
hydrocyanic gas. is quick and effective, 
but not an easily handled fumigant. It 
is too poisonous .and altogether too dan¬ 
gerous to be recommended for everyday 
use in the fumigation of households for 
such common, ever present insects as 
house flies. Moreover, it cannot be man¬ 
ufactured and sold in the form of can¬ 
dles. and must therefore be ruled out of 
consideration. There is left, then, sul¬ 
phur which, when used in .sufficient quan¬ 
tity, will kill household insects. More¬ 
over, sulphur for fumigating purposes is 
sold in the form of candles of different 
sizes. For example, drug stores carry 
sulphur candles weighing four, eight and 
16 ounces. It has been shown experi¬ 
mentally that 2 lbs. of sulphur burned 
in a room containing 1,000 cubic feet, or 
of course less, for example, a room 12 ft. 
long, 10 ft. wide and S ft. high containing 
900 cubic feet, will kill flies, mosquotoos, 
cockroaches and bedbugs promptly and 
with great satisfaction to the householder. 
It would take two of the 10-ounee can¬ 
dles for a room of the size given. 
The householder does not. however, 
have to buy candles, but may use ordi¬ 
nary flowers of sulphur, which is much 
cheaper. Two pounds of sulphur in a 
room of the size mentioned can easily be 
burned if a tnblespoonful of denatured 
alcohol is poured into a depression made 
in the center of the mass and then lighted. 
The sulphur should be put in an old fry¬ 
ing pan set on bricks in a pan containing 
some water to prevent danger of fire. In 
either case the windows and doors should 
be closed tightly and the room should be 
made as tight as possible before the 
fumigation is begun. 
I am doubtful, however, if the householder 
will ever find sulphur in any form very 
convenient for purposes of fumigation for 
house-flies. Iu the first place, unless the 
rooms are very dry, the sulphur fumes 
will tend to bleach the wallpaper and 
tarnish all metal objects exposed to the 
gas, for example, silverware and‘nickel 
utensils. Such objects may be coated 
with vaseline or tightly wrapped before¬ 
hand with towels or newspapers to pre¬ 
vent tarnishing. In addition, the trouble 
incident to preparing the room and keep¬ 
ing it closed for an hour or two will not 
he taken by most housekeepers to fight, 
an insect like the house-fly that will re¬ 
in fest the rooms in a day or two by com¬ 
ing in from out-of-doors in as great num¬ 
bers ns ever. House-flies breed contin¬ 
uously out-of-doors in the Summer time 
in various kinds of decaying vegetable 
matter, particularly stable manure, and 
a generation may he produced in two 
weeks during hot weather. The fighting 
of flies, therefore, becomes a more or less 
—mostly more—continuous process dur¬ 
ing the warm season. 
There is a possible third material 
which may lie used as a fumigant for 
flies, namely, fresh Persian insect pow¬ 
der, pyrelhrum. or tniluioh. as it is var¬ 
iously called. Certainly there is no more 
satisfactory way to rid a kitchen of 
house-flies than by the use of this pow¬ 
der. Go into the kitchen at night, close 
all the doors and windows, and then 
sprinkle the powder over the stove, on 
the window ledges and tables and in the 
air. In -the. morning all of the flics will 
be found lying around dead or stupefied 
and may be swept up and burned. That 
is, this will happen if the powder has not 
beet* adulterated and has not lost its 
strength while standing on the shelves in 
the drug store. The purchaser should 
insist on the purity and freshness of (he 
powder when purchased. Moreover, this 
powder is harmless to human beings. 
In some countries pastilles of pyreth- 
rum, which are candle-like iu form, are 
manufactured for burning in rooms, 
especially for killing mosquitoes. In a 
close room these pastilles, if fresh, should 
give excellent results in destroying flies. 
Perhaps pyret.hrum in tin' form of can¬ 
dles could be satisfactorily put on the 
market and thus meet the desire of the 
correspondent for an easy, effective fumi 
Rant, and one harmless to human beings. 
The great, drawback to pyretlirum as a 
commercial product is its tendency to 
lose its strength and effectiveness while 
in storage in pharmacies awaiting pur¬ 
chase by customers. 
Perhaps in this connection a word 
should be said regarding the use of for¬ 
maldehyde candles, which are used for 
disinfecting rooms following cases of 
diphtheria, scarlet fever and similar con¬ 
tagious diseases. Formaldehyde gas will 
kill the germs causing the diseases named, 
for these germs arc minute plants, but 
the gas from these candles cannot be de¬ 
pended upon to kill insects which, of 
course, are animals. 
In conclusion, it will not be out of 
place to suggest some quick and satisfac¬ 
tory methods of ridding rooms of house¬ 
flies. Formaldehyde, when taken inter¬ 
nally as a liquid by house-flies, Is a very 
efficient poison, and it is not a dangerous 
material to have about the house. A 
tnblespoonful in a pint of equal parts of 
water and milk will attract the flies and 
kill them in large numbers. The mixture 
should be poured into shallow dishes, 
soup plates or saucers, and a crust of 
bread dropped into the middle of each 
dish for the flics to light upon. If the 
shades are closely drawn, except one. 
which should be left up 2 or 9 in., and 
the dish is then set by this crack of light, 
the flies will flock to it and in an after¬ 
noon the dining-room may be entirely 
cleared of the pesky insects. 
Finally, in using sticky fly papers, the 
spools of this paper are tnueh more sat¬ 
isfactory and efficient than the large flat 
pieces. Flies are fond of gathering on a 
string or strip of paper or cloth hanging 
from the ceiling. This habit should be 
taken advantage of by suspending the 
narrow strips of sticky paper on the 
spools from the ceiling. They are then 
out of the way and, besides,” they will 
catch many more flies than one will catch 
with the flat pieces, glenn w. tier rick. 
_ IL N.-Y.—To show how rapidly house¬ 
flies breed, the following report is re¬ 
printed from a daily paper: 
hen six female flies were imprisoned 
on May 1 of this year by Prof. E. Tiou- 
baud. the first thing they began to do 
was to lay eggs. They were provided 
with Condensed milk for food. Their 
prison was roomy and airy and kept at 
a nice, comfortable temperature. 
‘‘At the end of the first week each of 
the six flies bad averaged 105 eggs and 
by the end of the month the total pro¬ 
duction was 2,(592. By that time, too, 
several hundred of their direct descend¬ 
ants were busy at the egg-laying game, 
and the professor was even busier trying 
to figure out how many flies he would 
have by the end of the season if produc¬ 
tion kepr up nr its normal rate. 
“lie figured in the end that each of his 
six prisoners would have by September 
.10 produced 1,985,909,.1ST .75.“,. 100 de¬ 
scendants. When he had finished figur¬ 
ing that out. the professor destroyed his 
pets and their entire families, and now 
he has written a book about them which 
he has just submitted for approval to the 
Academy of Science. 
"One of his conclusions is that the re¬ 
production of flies is nearly mathemati¬ 
cal. He discovered no failing in egg-lay¬ 
ing ability from one generation to an¬ 
other. and it was only in the second 
month of captivity that his original six 
seemed to begin to weary." 
Planting Strawberries Standing Up 
T read in Hope Farm Notes about 
strawberry plant setting. 1 think I have 
learned how to set the plants. Once on 
a time I set out 1.200 plants in the rain. 
I had on a raincoat and cut-off legs from 
an old pair of trousers drawn over my 
overalls. This was to keep my overalls 
free from mud. and to protect niv kuees 
from the small stones, t did the way 
that you say that you did: “We crawled 
along on our hands and knees until the 
job was done." And also. "It took all 
the distance of a quarter mile to straight¬ 
en out my back, so that I could walk up¬ 
right." 
A few days ago I set out about 1,000 
more. Now, did I crawl this time? No! 
I took a sunshiny day. when if looked as 
if we might have rain. T knocked off the 
handle from a small band trowel and put 
on a hoe handle. Then I stood in the 
position of a soldier’s “parade rest." I 
made about 150 holes successively. I filled 
the holes half full of water, 12 or so at a 
time. I dropped the plants into the 
holes. They were taken from a pail that 
had in it a few inches of water, so to keep 
the roots wet, but not the crowns. With 
my trowel I drew the dry earth about 
the plant, stepped on the roots and passed 
on to the next plant, doing GO per cent 
faster work than the old way. That night 
it rained, and results were good. 
Massachusetts. edwin u, wiiitney. 
Kodak on the farm 
Kodak does double duty on the farm. Pictures 
like the one reproduced above—that’s pleasure. 
A photographic record complete even to the date 
and title of crops, stock, buildings and equipment— 
that’s business. 
In either capacity it serves you well. 
Let your dealer show you how simple it is to make 
pictures with a Kodak. 
Autographic Kodaks $6.go up 
At your dealer s 
Kastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y 0 
Write 
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