FREED FROM FLIES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17157, 6 October 1926, Page 11

FREED FROM FLIES

PROFESSOR’S METHOD LIDO HOTELS KEPT CLEAR FLORENCE, August 29. Much success lias rewarded a new method of exterminating houses Hies adopted by Professor Antonio Berlese, the head of the Agrarian Entomological Institute of Florence. '• Mv 1 discovery,’ as if is called, is based, upon a. rather more accurate knowledge of the. habits of the hoivse-iiy than most people possess,” the professor said. “ Flies can lay their eggs only m putrid! matter of some kind, and if the winged lly is finally to emerge Irom the chrysalis the refuse on which .these changes take place must bo left undisturbed for about two weeks. “ It- is obvious, therefore, that llics, though cl toy may swarm in our duellings, do not breed' there, as garbage is regular]v removed from the average town house at least twice a week. '.I he chief breeding grounds of the house-iiv are the few large local ’ dumps ’ to which refuse is carted. The refuse remains there long enough to permit the full development of the- insect. "The female house lly lays ils eggs'—more than ICO at a time—-on these deposits. Its greedy partiality for anything in the form of sugar is well, known, so my death-trap is prepared as follows n " From April to the end of October all large refuse heaps in the area under treatment are thoroughly sprayed every five days with a liquid mixture <.f molasses and water, in which 5 per cent of arsenic lias been dissolved. The Hit's eat and drink and in an hour they arc dead. “ If, in addition, bunches of ferns, or branches of evergreen plants, well sprayed with the mixture, are placed at the entrances of slaughter-houses, butchers' shops, and stables, f. guarantee that very soon all the llics, within a radius of some miles will vanish.” The Berlese method was successfully tested last- summer at the fashionable watering-place of Monteeutini. An area containing 1500 private houses, hotels, and shops, as well as 70 stables in the town andl 40 on the outskirts, was completely freed from Hie liouse-ily at a total cost of about £SO. Hotels on the Lido are now kept clear of Hies jp the same way, and so is a. large sanatorium near Milan, where the Hies had tormented the patients almost beyond endurance. At San Rossore, near Pisa, the favorite autumn residence of the Italian Royal family, three, large groups of farm buildings, with- stabling', were cleared of ilies by the new method, and the professor showed me a letter expressing King Victor’s gratification with the result. The municipality cf Florence has now ‘decided to experiment, and Professor Berlese is Intsily organising Ids first campaign on a really large scale. He claims that the whole of Florence and the neighborhood around it to a distance of about three miles could be kept free from flics for a wliolo summer at a cost of from £6O to £7O.