eggs in horse manure. A single female lays from 120 to 160 
eggs. These eggs hatch out in twenty-four hours. The baby 
fly is a small white maggot, or larva, without feet, and 
lives in the manure where the egg was laid. In about a week 
it stops eating, gets stiff, and remains- motionless for another 
seven days. During this period 
it is known as the pupa , or third 
stage of the fly’s development. 
Then it breaks the thin shell that 
covers it and. comes forth a fly 
full-grown, with legs and wings 
and all its parts, just as we are 
accustomed to see it. This is 
the fourth stage, or imago. When 
cold weather comes most of the 
flies die, but a few find a warm 
place in the house where they 
can hide and stay until warm 
weather comes again in spring. 
The best way to avoid having flies in the house is to 
have wire screens at every window and outside door, for flies 
do not originate in the house; therefore, they enter after 
they have become full-grown. The most successful method 
of trapping those which have entered is by means of the 
sticky flypaper sold in all stores. Many people make a “fly 
brush” by cutting up flour sacks into long, narrow strips, and 
tying them to broomsticks, and at frequent intervals drive 
the flies out of an open door. The tops of asparagus are sus¬ 
pended in rooms, because flies delight to gather upon these 
plants, but the relief by this method is exceedingly slight. 
Several plants are spoken of as “fly catchers,” but their 
capacity for catching flies is very limited. The Venus fly 
trap, and several wild pinks, known as “catchflies,” are some 
of them. 
The house-fly cannot bite, as many people suppose. 
There is another fly which does bite that closely resembles 
the house-fly. It occurs occasionally in the house, and has 
a mouth, or proboscis, formed for piercing. When you find 
one of this kind, examine it closely. It is called the stable- 
fly, because it is abundant about the barns, but this is not 
the horse-fly, as some children might assume. 
3 
