Testing toxins in body contents of dead flies.
Dead flies were collected from areas both near the bait stations and far away from the bait stations from houses 4 and 7 (Table 2). The flies were tested for the presence of toxins. About 200 flies from each lot were washed three times in alcohol followed each time by a wash in sterile buffered saline solution followed by maceration with mortar and pestle. The macerated material was resuspended in 10 ml of sterile buffered saline. Each suspension was clarified by centrifugation
at 10,000 rpm to eliminate bacteria. Four such samples of flies (Table 2) were tested individually. Three mice were inoculated with each sample. All nine mice inoculated with three of the samples died. With the fourth sample, two mice died and one was paralyzed.
This test indicated clearly that the toxins were present
in the alcohol-washed macerated flies