FIGHTING THE FLY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18762, 29 December 1930, Page 4

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 the late Professor Antonio Berlesse, head of the Entomological Institute of Florence. As the continued presence of flies proves that the Italian authorities have been slack in carrying out Government orders, a circular has been addressed to all the prefects of the kingdom, reminding them of the law, and insisting that it shall be put 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 larvae 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. The strategic point to aim at is the refuse heap, large or small, and, above all, the dump of refuse heaps on the outskirts of a town, to which garbage is 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 the refuse heaps to lay their eggs, are attracted by the sweet taste and smell of the mixture. They feed on it greedily and die within the hour. All that it 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 threemile radius for a whole summer at a cost of from £7O to £BO.

On a smaller scale, the Berlesse method has been put to the test with complete success in various parts of Italy. It exterminated flies at the watering-place of Montecatini, at the 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 men are to be employed in every commune in spraying refuse heaps and in making periodical rounds to slaughterhouses, butchers’ shops, stables, and other places where flies mostly congregate.