FIGHTING THE FLY

Evening Star, Issue 20686, 8 January 1931, Page 2

FIGHTING THE FLY

CRUSADE IN ITALY A year ago the Fascist Government took Up arms against the house fly in Italy, and made a law for its extermination, based on the method of tjia late Professor Antoqio Berlesse, • head of the Entomological Institute of Florence. As the continued presence of flies proves that the Italian authorities hava been slack in carrying put Government} orders, a circular lias been addressed to all the prefects of the kingdom reminding them of the law, and insisting that it shall be pht in action, . Professor Berlesse based his method on the fact—not generally • realised—that flies deposit their eggs only in putrid matter of some kind, and if the eggs are to develop into lame their breeding ground must be left undisturbed for at least a fortnight. Therefore it is not much use to attack flies in the ordinary dwelling house. Tha strategic point to aim at is the reiusa heap, large or small, and, above all, the dump of refuse heaps on the outskirts of a town to which garbage i* systematically carted. " From the spring onward these dumps should therefore be regularly sprayed with a mixture of molasses and water to which a solution of arsenic has been added. The flies, swarming about tha refuse heaps to lay their eggs, are attracted by the sweet taste and smell 08 the mixture. They feed 6u it greedily, apd die within the hour. All that id needed for the complete success of the method is that the spraying should be kept up continuously all through the summer. Professor Berlesse used to say; that he would guarantee .to keep a town as large as Florence free from flies within a three-mile radius for a whole siunraer at a cost of from £7O to £BO. „ , On a smaller scale tne Berlesse method has been put to the test with complete success m various parts ofi Italy. It exterminated flies at the watering place of Montecatini, at tha Lido hotels, at a large sanatorium for. tuberculosis patients near Milan, and at the Royal Palace of San Rossore, near Pisa. Now special squads of meri are to be employed in every _ commune in spraying refuse heaps and m making periodical rounds to slaughter houses, butchers’ shops, stables, and t other places where flies mostly congregate.