That Pestiferous Fly.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 July 1914, Page 2

That Pestiferous Fly.

INSECTS GREAT AND SMALL'OF

THE MFRRY SUMMER SEASON

A very old proverb tells us that the fly is of small account till it gets in one's eye. But there are flies and flies, and the most dangerous are those which the average man rarely hears about. Town people complain bitterly of the way in which they are pesters' by the common or garden hons... during the summer months, but that little member of the winged tribe is kindness itself compared to the pestiferous little creatures that ruin the farmer's crops, kill his cattle, and cost him millions of pounds yearly. The ox-warble-fly causes damage to the amount of quite £4,000,000 annually, and it is one of the most destructive creatures under the sun. Resembling a small bumble-bee in appearance, it has the habit of laying its eggs on various parts of the bodies of cattle. The larvae, or "bots," hatch from the eggs, and these work their way beneath the hide and set up inflammation. As a'Wvjbnsequence, the perforated hides are worthless for tanning purposes, and very often the animals which have been attacked by the ox-warble-fiy are, when slaughtered, unfit as food for human consumption. Every year we hear much concerning the locust and its ways. This insect has caused famine after famine in India, Arabia, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and in 1874 America suffered terribly from the pest. Its ravages in the States of Wyoming, Dakota, and Montana cost over £8,000,000. In Argentina for years past thousand of acres of crops have been milieu annually by locusts. It was feared the other spring that the country would be overrun with them, so the Government called in the services of Dr. Felix d'Herelle, a young French scientist of the Pasteur Institute, who had discovered that locusts were subject to an epidemic disease, and that the best means of destroying the insects was to spread the disease am-ong them. Haviiv,- found the bacillus of the disease, he set out for the infected fields accompanied by mules carrying a supply of the disease-spread-ing liquid. Every swarm of locusts that could be found was sprinkled, and within three weeks only one living swarm was left in the infected districts.A mosquito has been found to be responsible for , that terrible fever known as the Yellow Jack, and a year or two ago a "larvaecide" was discovered -.hieh is almost certain death to that insect. It is composed of carbolic acid, caustic soda, and resin, and makes an emulsion or may be mixed with water. A few drops of the "larvaecide " worked wonders in the extermination of the fever breeding insects in Panama. c common house-fly is dangerous owing to the fact that it is oft«n in the habit of flying about with [tne bacilli of typhoid or of cholera. During the Spanish-American war it was declared that this little insect was far irore deadly t o the American troops than all the Spanish bullets. The gad-fly has cost Britain, millions C f pounds during recent years, and it has been responsible for two or three milk famines. The oil-fly is the dreaded enemy of the people who live in Southern Italy, and the ohve plantation* there have suffered terribly during recent years.

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