ONE OF THE PESTS OF INDIA.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2773, 11 February 1882, Page 2

ONE OF THE PESTS OF INDIA.

One of India’s pests is the metallic blue-fly. You sink the legs of your furniture into metallic sockets filled with salt and water, and’ pack your clothing in tight tin boxes, to prevent the incursions of white ants, but you have no remedy against the metallic bluefly, which fills every crevice, every keyhole and every key itself with clay. The fly is an artistic as well as an industrious worker, and he works always with an object. He selects a hole, a keyhole, or an empty space in any metallic substance Is preferred, but, in the absence of any such material, the holes in the bottom of a cane seat chair, or any perforated wood will answer the purpose. After seeing that the hole is clean and in good order, ho commences operations by laying on the bottom a smooth carpet, of clay ; then the bodies of several defunct spiders ere triumphantly placed upon the carpet. On top of these spiders the eggs of a female fly are deposited. The tomb is then ready for closing.

The top is neatly covered over with clay, but still it has an unfinished look. This is remedied, by a thin coat of whitewash, and then the fly looks upon his work and pronounces it good. .When the tomb is opened there are more metallic blueflies in the world than there were before. You are anxious to examine or wear some of your valuables, which you can always keep under lock and key, and you take your key, and endeavour to unlock your trunk, but it is only an endeavour. There is resistance in the keyhole. You examine the key, and you find that it is nicely sealed up with clay, and the keyhole is in the same condition. It is a work of patience to destroy the nursery of the poor insect and lay his castle in ruins, but a determined will can accomplish much. Cane-seated chairs are sometimes so occupied by these clay homos as to make it hard to determine what the original substance was.