Show abr THE HOUSEFLY HOUSE FLY A maggot trap which will practically prevent the breeding of the housefly house fly is described in a new bulletin of the U S department part ment of agriculture no A maggot trap in practical use an experiment in housefly house fly control the investigators who carried on this experiment peri ment at the maryland agricultural college declare that during august and september at least east 98 per cent of the larvae breeding in the manure were d destroyed e st and although the trap was waa not sot eo efficient when the weather became colder eyen even then it greatly reduced the num ber of flies files the principle of the trap is simple it is easy to construct and the expense is said to be probably less in the long run than han the iny investment estment which many farmers now make in screens for their dwellings and sprays and fly nets for their live stock in its roughest outlines the trap consists of a concrete basin with a latticed wooden platform erected upon 1 it to hold the manure the jat basin is AS connected by a i drain pipe with a small edne concrete rete cister the bottom of odthe the basin is filled with water waier into which the maggots breedi breeding nj in the manure drop as they are about to turn in tb the pupa euph or chrysalis stage and are drowned at frequent intervals the water is run off into the cistern and isthan pumped back on the manure pile in this way all the liquid manure is saved the successful operation of this trap rests upon several facts with the habits of the housefly house fly which have been thoroughly established by observation the adult fly lays its eggs lin in fresh manure there they remain until the larva stage is almost ovar over and the insects are about to enter the pupa or chrysalis stage bat i at this time a pronounced nouna tendency to migrate is evident in consequence if the manure is placed paced upon a plat form with a latticework ait bottom the larvae while migrating wll will fall through these openings into the water in the basin below in the case of the experiments at the maryland agricultural college a careful count showed that between july 25 and october I 1 about larvae were adre killed athis way this however does not inot include the number that ahat were picked up from the basin by spar TOWS rows or poultry altogether it os as estimated that during the warm weather the efficiency of the trap was probably 99 per cent later when the temperature was lower the traps sue suc pesa was not so marked this was accounted for by the fact that when the air is much colder than the manure heap the larvae will not attempt to leave the heap and therefore will not fall into the basin another difficulty experienced arose from mosquitoes using the water in the basin and the cistern to breed in this was overcome by cleaning out the basin at regular intervals and by sprinkling a little oil over the surface of the water in the cistern properly constructed such a trap offers no obstacles to the convenient and economical handling of manure it is essential 0 however that each days addo addition to the heap should be sprinkled with sufficient water to keep the manure moist but net enough to cause leaching the details of the construction of the trap are contained in the bulletin already mentioned this particular trap was designed to hold the manure produced by three horses for three months but there is no reason why larger r quantities should not be treated in the hamd same way by building larger traps or by building several of smaller size |