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JOURNAL 
OF 
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 
Vol. 11 OCTOBER, 1918 No. 5 
SPRINKLING SEWAGE FILTER FLY 
PSYCHODA ALTERNATA SAY 
By Thomas J. Headlee, Ph. D. and Charles S. Beckwith, B. Sc. 
Introduction 
This small light-colored moth-like fly has proven itself a serious 
nuisance wherever sprinkling filters have been utilized for the purifica¬ 
tion of faecal sewage. When the sprinkling filters are located at great 
distances from human habitation the matter seems to have proven a 
nuisance only; but when located within reach of human habitation 
three-fourths of a mile or less, these flies penetrate the houses, get into 
the foods and are accused by the persons concerned as being the car¬ 
riers of infections from which they suffer. There seems to be no clear- 
cut evidence to show that they are responsible for the carriage of in¬ 
fections, but in the opinion of the part of the public concerned they 
are firmly identified as carriers, and suits at law have been and are 
always likely to be filed against the municipality or company running 
such a filter plant. 
The Joint Sewer Committee of the City of Plainfield and the Bor¬ 
oughs of North Plainfield and Dunellen, feeling that everything possi¬ 
ble should be done to render the sewage disposal plant under its charge 
a pleasant neighbor for the people living in the vicinity, called the 
senior author into consultation for tho purpose of finding out a way to 
eliminate this nuisance. A survey of the literature showed that the 
only method holding out any hope of controlling the pest was one 
embodied by Mtetcalf and Eddie in their advice to use charges of hy¬ 
pochlorite of lime. 
