these transparent? Behind the wings there is a pair of small stubs which
is all that is left of the hind pair of wings. Are the eyes large? Can
you find a pair of small feelers? Why can you not pick up a fly like you
would a grasshopper? Is their eye sight good? Why are they always most
abundant on a kitchen screen door? Can they smell?

What are the fly's worst enemies? Will the toad eat them? Do chickens
eat them? Have you ever seen chickens scratching in manure and feeding
on the fly maggots? Put a few drops of formaldehyde, which you can get
from a druggist, in a few spoonfuls of sweet milk or sugar syrup and let
the flies eat it and see what happens to them. This is one of our best
poison baits for flies which get in the home or collect about the dairy.
Formaldehyde is a poison and when used in bait it must be kept out of
reach of children. Just about frost, in the fall, watch for the
appearance of inactive flies on walls, windows and other parts of the
house. These have been attacked by a parasitic disease. These are often
found sticking to walls and other objects about the room in the winter,
and are commonly thought to be passing the winter.

* * * * *

"_The insect we now call the 'house fly' should in the future be
termed the 'typhoid fly,' in order to call direct attention to the
danger of allowing it to continue to breed unchecked._"

--L. O. HOWARD.

CHAPTER V

THE MOSQUITO

Here we have another small insect which, like the house fly, is
extremely dangerous, due to its ability to carry the germs of disease.
There are hundreds of species of mosquitoes, some small, some large. The
majority of these are unable to carry disease so far as we know at
present, but they should be avoided as dangerous. The Missouri forms
which carry disease are the so-called malarial fever mosquitoes, and
they are entirely responsible for the transmission of this sapping and
often fatal disease. In the warm countries these are more abundant and
the fever is more fatal. In the south there is still another
disease-carrying mosquito, the yellow fever mosquito. This form is most
dangerous of all.

The mosquito first bites a patient suffering with malaria and in this
way it takes in germs along with the blood which it sucks from the
patient. After these germs pass through stages of development in the
body of the mosquito they are ready to