Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1910 — CAUGHT MANY FLIES [ARTICLE]

CAUGHT MANY FLIES

Ancient Mexican Industry Ruined by Modern Improvements. B!nce Days of Aztec Lords Small Band of Natives Supplied Canaries and Other Pet Birds With Delicacy. Mexico City.—When the government of Mexico decided to drhln Lake Texcoco, just east of the city, in order to lessen the danger of floods during the rainy season and also to get at the rich soda deposits in the bed of the lake it sounded the doom of one of the queerest and most ancient Industries in the new world, that of catching flies for market. Since the days of the Aztec lords of Mexico a small band pf natives has made a comfortable living out of the business of supplying the canaries and other pet birds and fine poultry of the United States aqd Mexico with the delicacy of dry, salted flies. Now the lake is drying up, the flies have disappeared, the birds are to go hungry and the fly catchers have abandoned their pleasant vocation for the drudgery of digging soda from the bottom of a smelly lake. Catching flies for market on the shores of Lake Texcoco has been a profitable industry since the days of the Aztecs. Until recent years the annual production of dried insects was fneasured in tons and until thlß year was sufficient to afford a means of livelihood to a small colony of native fly catchers. These market flies are a llttlp smaller thap the ordinary house fly. Preserved in the natural salts they were found to be an excellent food for caged birds and chickens and hundreds of sacks were shipped annually to bird dealers in the United States and Germany. The fnsects are caught in nets as they swarm near the lake’s surface, killed by drowning in the water and immediately spread out on sheets to dry. After this simple curing process they are sacked up and are then ready for market. Some are used in this city and the republic, but the excellent demand which has grown up for them in other countries within the last few years has greatly increased the price and lessened the local demand. During the year 1909 more than SIO,OOO worth were shipped to Europe alone. The profession of fly catching and fly preserving has been handed down from father to son in a few families

who have held a monopoly on the Industry since the days of Netzahualcoyotl, when that monarch signed a treaty with the Casique Chimalpopoca of Tenochtitlan whereby a number of Tencans received a concession to gather flies in the former’s realm to feed the sacred quetzals in the great teacalli.