Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1894 — The Making of Fly Paper. [ARTICLE]

The Making of Fly Paper.

The substance used in the sticky paper employed to catch flies is a kind of bird lime. The regular bird lime is made from the banc of the holly by boiling it and condensing the product until it is about the consistency of molasses. It is the stickiest stuff known to the chemist A fly that touches the paper never gets away to tell the tale; a bird that lights on the twig that has been smeared with it finds escape an impossibility. The use of it on paper to destroy insects is an Indian invention. In Hindostan flies and mosquitoes make life a burden, and without the sheets of sticky paper hung everywhere about the roof ana on the walls, existence would be a misery.