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The Child's Day by Woods Hutchinson
page 79 of 136 (58%)
[Illustration: A MAGGOT HATCHING FROM THE EGG

(Greatly magnified.)]

It takes the maggot about five days to grow to its full size, and then
it turns into a _chrysalis_. That is, it is shut up in a kind of case
that it has spun for itself, like the cocoon of the silkworm or the
caterpillar. In about five days more it breaks out of this cocoon and
appears as a fly with wings.

So, you see, the eggs must stay in that manure heap about two weeks if
they are to hatch. If, within that time, the manure is carted away and
thrown out somewhere where it will dry, the little unhatched flies
will be killed, or prevented from hatching. All we have to do, then,
to be entirely rid of flies about our houses is to see that the heaps
of manure and all piles of cans and garbage are taken away at least
once a week.

[Illustration: FLY MAGGOTS ON OLD NEWSPAPER

Note the size of the maggot compared with the newspaper type.]

If manure heaps or piles of dirt cannot, for any reason, be carried
away as often as this, then they can be sprinkled with something that
is poisonous to flies, such as arsenic or kerosene. This will kill the
maggots. If we keep every kind of waste and scraps from the house, and
all the manure from the barn and the pig-pen and the hen-house
carefully cleaned up, or sprinkled with some poison, we shall get rid
of flies entirely and never need to use screens at the doors and
windows. Until we do this, it is best to put screens at the doors and
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