DESTRUCTION OF FLIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16905, 2 December 1922, Page 12

DESTRUCTION OF FLIES.

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. AY hat seems to be a revolutionary cuscovery is leported to have been made by Mr J. Hertz, principal of a, urn; of wholesale chemists in London (writes a London correspondent). For two whole years he has been experimenting with, various substances for putting an end to insect pests. At last no is said to have discovered a solution, quite harmless to individuals and animals, in the fumes of which no insect can live for more than a few seconds. Putting this assertion to the teet, he placed a wasp and afterwards some flies m a glass howl with two or three drops of the liquid. The wasp struggled on the side of the glass for ten seconds and fell dead. The end of the flies came more swiftly still. A few days later, Mr Hertz said, he visited a department of the factory of a wellknown firm of confectioners whioh was much troubled with wasps and bees. Ho sprayed the room with the liquid, and hundreds dropped upon the floor dead. The manager of the department had been stung by one of the wasps. A drop of the liquid rubbed upon the wound at once removed the sting and reduced the inflammation. Another trial of the solution was rrade in some stables. No flies touched any horse that was sprayed nor did they enter the stables as long as the. odour lasted. At his home in the country Mr Hertz keeps a little of the liquid in a bowl on the dining table, and the room has been free from insects of every kind throughout the summer. «The odour is by no means pungent, but is rather like that of burnt

rubber. Countries that are troubled with the mosquito are greatly interested in the discovery. Mr Hertz is being urged to place the solution upon the market. It will be some little time, however, before this can be done, for it means getting a factory where it will be possible to produce it in many thousands of gallons daily#