Handbook of Medical EntomologyRiley, William A. (William Albert)
Science
Handbook of Medical Entomology
Riley, William A. (William Albert)
Insect pests; Insects as carriers of disease; Medical parasitology
"While it can be safely stated that no injurious action will follow the
application of manure treated with borax at the rate of 0.62 pound for
eight bushels, or even larger amounts in the case of some plants,
nevertheless the borax-treated manure has not been studied in connection
with the growth of all crops, nor has its cumulative effect been
determined. It is therefore recommended that not more than 15 tons per
acre of the borax-treated manure should be applied to the field. As
truckmen use considerably more than this amount, it is suggested that
all cars containing borax-treated manure be so marked, and that
public-health officials stipulate in their directions for this treatment
that not over 0.62 pound for eight bushels of manure be used, as it has
been shown that larger amounts of borax will injure most plants. It is
also recommended that all public-health officials and others, in
recommending the borax treatment for killing fly eggs and maggots in
manure, warn the public against the injurious effects of large amounts
of borax on the growth of plants."
"The amount of manure from a horse varies with the straw or other
bedding used, but 12 or 15 bushels per week represent the approximate
amount obtained. As borax costs from five to six cents per pound in
100-pound lots in Washington, it will make the cost of the borax
practically one cent per horse, per day. And if calcined colemanite is
purchased in large shipments the cost should be considerably less."
Hodge (1910) has approached the problem of fly extermination from
another viewpoint. He believes that it is practical to trap flies out of
doors during the preoviposition period, when they are sexually immature,
and to destroy such numbers of them that the comparatively few which
survive will not be able to lay eggs in sufficient numbers to make the
next generation a nuisance. To the end of capturing them in enormous
numbers he has devised traps to be fitted over garbage cans, into stable
windows, and connected with the kitchen window screens. Under some
conditions this method of attack has proved very satisfactory.
One of the most important measures for preventing the spread of disease
by flies is the abolition of the common box privy. In villages and rural
districts this is today almost the only type to be found. It is the
chief factor in the spread of typhoid and other intestinal diseases, as
well as intestinal parasites. Open and exposed to myriads of flies which
not only breed there but which feed upon the excrement, they furnish
ideal conditions for spreading contamination. Even where efforts are
made to cover the contents with dust, or ashes, or lime, flies may
continue to breed unchecked. Stiles and Gardner have shown that
house-flies buried in a screened stand-pipe forty-eight inches under
sterile sand came to the surface. Other flies of undetermined species
struggled up through seventy-two inches of sand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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