Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1874 — Maggots and Flies. [ARTICLE]

Maggots and Flies.

Entomologists hold that no insect is produced by spontaneous production, and that all organized life has its parentage in the like. In this case the maggot is but one phase of the life of the insect —the next giving it wings with the power to reproduce its kind. These maggots are produced, in the case of meat, by several species of flies and that of the cheese by a small fly called Piaphiliacasci, not more than three-twentieths of an inch long. It is of a shining-black color, with the middle and hinder legs mostly yellowish and the wings transparent like glass. Among the meat-flies two are more prominent. One of these is out early in the spring and remains all summer, doing its mischief. It is called Musea vomitaria, is of a blue-black color, with a dark-blue and hairy hind body. The eggs are called fly-blows, and hatch in two or three hours, and the maggots complete their growth in three or four days. The other is a smaller fly of a brilliant blue-green color with black legs. There is a very large fly of this class thaX comes out in June and stays with us until the last of August. While on the subject of flies I might call attention to another class of flesheating flies that are bred about the stables and so closely resemble the horse-flies that all suppose them to be the same; but they differ in the forni of their proboscis, which is very long and slender and projects horizontally beyond the head. It is this fly that bites through our clothing and torments our stock, rnone especially just before a rain. This fly feeds on animal matter and is very annoying. The horse-fly may be kept out of the house by the use of wirecloth, which is coming into common use for that purpose. By darkening the room they may be driven out. Of late years we have had little trouble with horseflies. The smoke-house is kept too dark for the maggot-fly, and cheese are protected in boxes. That the maggots are due to insectparentage is quite evident to any observing person; and, knowing this fact, the preventive may be applied- These flies produce an immense number of young— Reamur having observed 20,000 in a single fly. This may at once account ,for their wonderful increase in so short a time, and then it requires but a few days for these to produce another generation. The elements of entomology ought to be taught in our schools. It might be introduced into our reading lessons at least. It should not be expected to thus make an entomologist of the scholar, but to give him rational ideas in regard to insect life. The farmer must fight flies, and, to do so in the best manner,. mqst first learn their habits. If they:- pre produced by spontaneous production, he may give up all hope; for, like the lice of Egypt, they would appear without notice; but, if they have a parentage, they may be prevented from doing mischief by excluding them from the object of attack. The good woman has discovered that fresh meat keeps much longer when exposed to a current of air, and that a box having ifs sides of wire-cloth will keep off the flies and admit air to the meat; and this gives the fanner the hint that he can air his smoke-house in the same manner, and, at the same time, exclude the fly that lays the maggots; and, with the same means, the houseflies and the biting flies from the stable may be kept at bay.—“ Rural,” in Qhiago Tribune,