DESTRUCTION OF FLIES.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13440, 11 June 1912, Page 2

DESTRUCTION OF FLIES.

War has been declared in America against Hies. It commenced in the Kansas town of Weir, where at the instigation of Dr. Crumbrue tho Boy Scouts devoted a day to clearing tho town of all refuse and garbage which might serve a3 a breeding ground for fiios. Tho example thus set was followed enthusiastically ■by tho Scout organisations throughout Kansas. The worlc was done systematically. Preliminary scouting showed the boys just where to go, and on the appointed day the Scouts of each town formed themselves into three'divisions— the rake ■brigade, the gunny-sack brigade and the hauling brigade- Not content with this tho Scouts of Weir constructed largo numbers of fly traps, which they placed throughout the. city, and also mad© long wooden "fly swatW*.which were distributed without charge, two to every householder. Last year a fortnight's fly-catching crusade was filtered upon in Washington D.C., tho immediate stimulus being prize money to the amount of 100 dollars offered by the Washington "Star," to be awarded to the boys or girls who broughtdn most dead flies. Paper boxes were given free as receptacles for the flies, and the scores of tho ten highest competitors were published daily. The first pme was won by a syndicate of twenty-five boys, headed by a thirtcon-year-oldl lad named Layton H. Burdette r dotte Fly Syndicate invented a. simple trap composed of an cxtmgmsheishaped cone of wire gauze with a poisoned bait. Many of the competitors killed their flies by putting thorn n boiling water, but the Burdotte Syndicate was wiser. Flies were. counted as 1600 to the gill, and wet flies took up loss space-than dry ones, so the successful syndicate used sulphur fumes to put their prey in marketable condition it the end of a fortnight they had killed 343,000 flies, winning' tho first prize by a margin of 150,000. The contestants kept records of the dir.tnc,s where they caught their flies, and these records were of value to the Health Department. Tho 1911 crusade in Wash- ■ hJton yielded a harvest of 7,000,000 flies, and tho campaign is to be repeated this year.