insects abound. They prefer lard to anything else, and will forsake
sugar for it. Place a few sticks around the plate for the ants to
climb up on. Occasionally turn the plate bottom up over the fire, and
the ants will fall in with the melting lard. Reset the plate, and in
a short time you will catch them all.
Blackbeetles.--(_a_) Keep a hedgehog. (_b_) Set a deep dish or
earthen pan, containing a little sugared beer by way of attraction;
it will entrap the insects in vast numbers, if a few pieces of wood
are inclined against the sides to serve as ladders. They will tumble
in when they reach the edge, and the glazed sides will prevent their
getting out. (_c_) Immediately before bedtime, strew the floor of
those parts of the house most infested with the vermin with the
green peel, cut not very thin, from the cucumber. (_d_) A mixture
of Persian insect powder and powdered wormseed, thrown about where
they frequent. (_e_) Use powdered borax, about ½ lb. to each room.
It requires perseverance and care in its use. It should be scattered
about freely wherever they congregate, and particularly in cracks
and crevices where they can hide from it. It may be blown or forced
by the blade of a knife into narrow cracks. The effect of the borax
is to cause them to emigrate. It may kill a few, which will be found
afterwards in a dried withered up condition lying about on the floor.
They may be swept up without injury to carpets or furniture.
Bugs.--The following are paste poisons:--(_a_) 1 oz. mercurial
ointment, ¼ oz. corrosive sublimate, ¼ oz. Venetian red. (_b_) Soft
soap and cayenne pepper. (_c_) Soft soap and corrosive sublimate.
(_d_) Soft soap and strong snuff. The following are washes for
furniture or floors:--(_a_) A small quantity (6_d._ worth) salts of
wormwood, dissolved in a bucket of hot writer. (_b_) Solution of
pyroligneous acid, arsenite of potash, decoction of oak bark, and
garlic. (_c_) 2 dr. corrosive sublimate, 8 oz. spirits of wine rubbed
in mortar till dissolved, then add ½ pint spirits of turpentine.
(_d_) 1 lb. each sal ammoniac, and corrosive sublimate, 8 gal.
hot water. (_e_) 1½ oz. camphor, 8 oz. each spirits of turpentine
and spirits of wine. (_f_) Weak solution of zinc chloride. (_g_)
Benzine. (_h_) Equal parts spirits of turpentine and kerosene.
Application:--(_a_) The room must be thoroughly cleared; take the bed
and bedclothes into the open air, and beat them thoroughly; take the
bedstead to pieces, and after a thorough purification with hot water,
plug every hole and crevice with one of the pastes given above; stop
all cracks, &c., in the floor and walls with the paste also. (_b_)
Empty the room; scrape off all paper and burn immediately on the spot
in charcoal brazier; fill all cracks in plaster, paint, and wormwood
with a poison paste; scent the floor with a wash; burn all old scraps
of carpet.
Crickets.--(_a_) Half fill some jampots with water and set at night.
(_b_) A covered box with perforated lid containing a little salt or
oatmeal.
Earwigs.--Place lengths of hollow bean-stalk or other tube where the
insects collect, and each morning empty them into boiling water by
blowing sharply through.
Fleas.--In Beds.--(_a_) Sprinkle chamomile flowers in the bed. (_b_)
Use young leaves of wild myrtle in the same way. (_c_) Strew fresh
mint under the beds. (_d_) Have walnut leaves about the person.
(_e_) Place a piece of new flannel in the bed, and there seek the
vermin. (_f_) Sprinkle the bed or night dress with a little solution
of camphor in spirits of wine. (_g_) Sponge your person with camphor
water-¼ oz. camphor, ½ oz. tincture of myrrh in 1 qt. water, shake
well before use.
In Rooms.--(_a_) Slice a strong onion and rub the bottom edge of the
trousers. The favourite point of attack is at the ankles and the legs
up to the knee; they do not jump so much from above. (_b_) Make a
strong decoction of laurel leaves by filling a large copper with the
leaves, adding as much water as possible, and boil for 4 or 5 hours.
Then take the leaves away, and deluge the floors with the boiling hot
liquor. The liquor will but very slightly discolour the ceilings,
which can be whitened again.
On Animals.--(_a_) Oil of pennyroyal will certainly drive them off;
but a cheaper method, where the herb flourishes, is to dip dogs and
cats into a decoction of it once a week. Mow the herb and scatter it
in the beds of pigs once a month. Where the herb cannot be got, the
oil may be procured. In this case, saturate strings with it and tie
them around the necks of dogs and cats, pour a little on the back
and about the ears of hogs, which you can do while they are feeding,
without touching them. By repeating these applications every 12 or 15
days, the fleas will leave the animals. Strings saturated with the
oil of pennyroyal, and tied around the neck and tail of horses, will
drive off lice; the strings should be saturated once a day. (_b_)
Equal parts ox-gall, oil of camphor, oil of pennyroyal, extract of
gentian, spirits of wine; wash.
Flies.--In Rooms.--(_a_) A castor-oil plant growing in the room kills
many and drives away the rest. (_b_) A bunch of walnut leaves keeps
them out. (_c_) A large, handsome Japanese lily (_Lilium auratum_)
behaves like the castor-oil plant. (_d_) Soak blotting-paper in a
solution of sugar of lead, and sweeten with molasses. (_e_) Mix
treacle, moist sugar, or honey with 1/12 of orpiment. (_f_) Boil ¼
oz. of quassia chips in 1 pint water for 10 minutes; strain; add 4
oz. molasses. (_g_) Spread laurel oil on picture frames, curtains,
&c. (_h_) When going to bed, blow some Persian or Dalmatian insect
powder into the air of the room and close it for the night; burn the
dust swept from the room in the morning.
On Animals.--(_a_) Procure a bunch of smartweed, and bruise it to
cause the juice to exude. Rub the animal thoroughly with the bunch of
bruised weed, especially on the legs, neck, and ears. Neither flies
nor other insects will trouble him for 24 hours. The process should
be repeated every day. A very convenient way of using it, is to make
a strong infusion by boiling the weed a few minutes in water. When
cold it can be conveniently applied with a sponge or brush. Smartweed
is found growing in every section of the country in the United
States, usually on wet ground near highways. (_b_) Scatter lime
chloride on a board in the stable or pen.
Harvest Bugs.--Smear the legs all over with (_a_) Decoction of
colocynth; (_b_) strong vinegar; (_c_) paraffin; (_d_) thick soap
lather; (_e_) tincture of iodine; (_f_) benzine; (_g_) tar ointment
(_h_) 1 oz. insect powder (Dalmatian) macerated in 1 oz. weak spirit,
and then diluted with 2½ oz. water.
Mosquitoes and Gnats.--To keep them away from the person:--(_a_) 1
oz. each olive oil and oil of tar, ½ oz. each glycerine, spirit of
camphor, and oil of pennyroyal, 2 dr. carbolic acid; mix and shake
well before use. (_b_) Sponge with 1 oz. camphor dissolved in 1 qt.
cold water. (_c_) Dissolve as much camphor as possible in olive or
castor oil, boil down the oil to half, and smear on the face and
hands. (_d_) Mix 3 oz. olive oil, 2 oz. oil of pennyroyal, 1 oz.
glycerine, 1 oz. ammonia; shake well; apply, avoiding the eyes. (_e_)
Rub lime juice on the skin. (_f_) Essential oil of lemon. (_g_)
Rub with bruised laurel leaves. (_h_) Dust the face and hands with
potato flour. (_i_) Vaseline or petroleum ointment. (_j_) Rub on 4
oz. glycerine, 4 dr. oil of turpentine, 2½ dr. oil of spearmint.
(_k_) Hang a piece of camphor in a muslin bag from the topmost coat
button-hole. (_l_) Dissolve in a cupful of water as much alum as
the water will contain--in other words, make the strongest solution
possible of alum and water; add ⅓ proportion of aromatic vinegar,
and ¼ of glycerine; keep it in small flat phials convenient for the
pocket, and apply it constantly during the day. Rae mentions that he
does not believe without its alleviating influence he would have been
able to carry out his journey in Lapland, so severe were the attacks
of these insect pests.
Driving from Bedstead.--Hang on the bedstead: (_a_) a few bruised
leaves of pennyroyal; (_b_) a sponge dipped in camphorated spirit;
(_c_) a bunch of elder; (_d_) a bunch of wormwood; (_e_) a bough of
ash.
Driving from Room.--Burn: (_a_) Camphor in a tin dish over a candle
so that it evaporates without igniting; (_b_) cow-dung; (_c_)
wormwood; (_d_) juniper wood sawdust.
Moths.--Numerous opinions have been expressed from time to time as
to the most effective means of preventing the ravages of the larva
of the “clothes-moth.” The most practical may be summarised as
follows. (_a_) When the number of garments or other fabrics is small
an efficient plan is found to be to keep them exposed to the air and
liable to constant disturbance, with occasional shaking and beating.
(_b_) One writer finds it a very good plan to put winter things, such
as curtains, furs, heavy shawls, dresses, extra blankets, &c., away
in wine cases, papered inside and out with newspaper; when nailed
down, every crack or crevice is pasted over. This should be done
in April, before any moths are about; the clothes are then safe.
Other articles which cannot well be packed away for the summer,
such as dress-coats, are quite safe if folded in plenty of sound
newspaper. (_c_) Another states that articles put away for 5 years
in a warehouse were perfectly uninjured in all cases where they were
_completely_ wrapped in linen, while every part not thus protected
was more or less destroyed by moth. (_d_) One experimenter placed 4
moths in the balance, and found that they weighed 2¾ gr. They were
then placed in a watch-glass, and dried over the steam of boiling
water. There remained ·830 gr., say 30 per cent., or, in other terms,
if 100 lb. of the grubs were dried they would lose 70 lb. or 7 gal.
of water (and this is exclusive of what the insect must have lost in
perspiration and other animal functions). The remedy which suggested
itself was, that if we could render our garments absolutely dry,
even if the mother moth should deposit her eggs, they could not grow
or live in the absolute absence of moisture; and that if we could
place our garments for a short time, during the moth season, May and
June, in a close chamber, heated by steam pipes to the boiling point,
aided by a little chloride of calcium, on trays to absorb moisture,
the necessary conditions would be met; and even if the mother moth
had succeeded in depositing her eggs before the hot chamber process
had been applied, it would still prove effective, as the eggs would
be hard-boiled and rendered unproductive. Possibly if drying ovens
were kept available at a small charge, they would find extensive
employ, as the losses incurred by dealers in furs is immense; and in
private families for the treatment of clothing, blankets, and other
articles they would be of great value. (_e_) The use of a vacuum
and hot gases has been under experiment by the Government of the
United States. It is believed that a large cylinder of boiler iron
may be filled with woollen goods, either cloth or made-up garments,
in unbroken bales or boxes; the top screwed on air-tight; the air
exhausted by an air-pump worked by the steam engine, and the vacuum
filled after a sufficient time to kill all active developed moths
and grubs, with air which has passed through a stove filled with
ignited charcoal or anthracite coal. This atmosphere will contain no
supporter of respiration; it consists of nitrogen, carbonic acid,
and carbonic oxide, and some watery vapour, with a little sulphur
and traces of other volatile impurities contained in the fuel. The
carbonic oxide is a violent poison. The other gases named are all
either inert, unable to support life, or positively noxious. They
will penetrate under the pressure of 15 lb. to the sq. in. into every
nook and cranny between the folds of the goods, and into every empty
pore of the woollen fibres themselves. They can be introduced at
such a temperature as may be determined to be best and sufficient.
Experiments at Nottingham reported in the _Journal of Applied
Science_ show, if correctly performed, that woollen goods may be
exposed for 3 hours to an atmosphere in a close vessel heated to
250°F. (121°C.) without injury, and that even 295°F. (146°C.) is not
seriously injurious to the fibre, though it changes the colours of
some goods. One difficulty in caring for great quantities of these
goods is the labour and exposure incident to opening packages, taking
out to handle separately each article, exposing it after brushing to
the attacks of the moths, always ready for action at the only season
when this overhauling is needed. (_f_) The larva of the clothes-moth
will only attack and devour substances that immediately serve it for
food, and will not gnaw through the most flimsy envelope, provided
this is not edible. But still in these the most careful folding
will fail to keep them out, as the tiny hatchlings will find their
way through the seams; these should be pasted together, but as the
insects are particularly fond of paste this should be poisoned either
with a little corrosive sublimate or by triturating some camphor
with it. Moths will never eat through brown paper. This must be of
the right sort, i.e. made from old tarred ropes, and smelling of
tar. Larvæ of clothes-moths, if they can get at nothing else, will
feed on ordinary paper if kept in a damp place. The protection of
the wrappers consists in their coarse tarry nature. (_g_) Dust the
articles with alum dried to a cinder and powdered. (_h_) Mix 2 oz.
snuff, 4 oz. cedar sawdust, 1 oz. black pepper, 1 oz. camphor, 1
dr. lupulin (hop flowers), and blow it into corners with a powder
bellows. (_i_) Soak blotting-paper in a mixture of oil of camphor
and spirits of turpentine, and lay it among the goods. (_j_) Prof.
Riley says that the early days of June should herald vigorous and
exterminating warfare against these subtle pests. Closets, wardrobes,
all receptacles for clothing, should be emptied and laid open, their
contents thoroughly exposed to light and air, and well brushed and
shaken before being replaced. In old houses much infested with moths
all cracks in floors, wainscots, shelves, or furniture, should be
brushed over with spirits of turpentine. Camphor or tobacco should
be placed among all garments, furs, plumes, &c., when laid aside for
the summer. To secure cloth linings of carriages from the attacks
of moths, sponge them on both sides with a solution of corrosive
sublimate of mercury in alcohol, made just strong enough not to leave
a white mark on a black feather. Moths may be killed by fumigating
the article containing them with tobacco or sulphur, or by putting
it, if practicable, into an oven heated to about 150° F. (_k_)
Nothing is better than Mikado moth papers (Fleming, 101 Leadenhall
St., E.C.), placed between folds of the articles to be protected, and
occasionally renewed.
Poultry Lice.--(_a_) Damp the skin beneath the feathers and dust on
powdered sulphur. (_b_) Scatter male persimon leaves on the floor of
the house, or wash the house with a decoction of the leaves. (_c_)
Thoroughly lime-white the house, adding sulphur to the lime.
Slugs and Snails.--Lay salt on the trails.
Wasps.--(_a_) Put pulverised commercial potassium cyanide, one or
two tablespoonfuls, into the entrance of the nest without disturbing
it or the insects; they enter never to return. (_b_) At noon, or
soon after, when the insects are abroad in search of food, fumigate
the hole with sulphur; dig out the comb and destroy everything in
it; then place a wine bottle, half full of water, in the hole,
leaving the mouth of the bottle within an inch of the surface of the
surrounding earth; on taking it up next morning, you will find every
one of that family safe in the trap. (_c_) Pour some tar into and
around the nest and ignite it; take care to have the head and hands
covered with gauze. (_d_) Spread arsenic and the dust of loaf sugar
(1 to 20) on pieces of orange peel out of the reach of children.
(_e_) Hang bottles containing treacle and water in the plum trees and
other resorts, and examine daily.
_Rats._--(_a_) Mix together 8 oz. strong cheese and 2 oz. powdered
squills, and place in their haunts and runs. It acts immediately, and
the rats die instantly; whereas most of the pastes, &c., allow the
animals to retire into their holes, where their subsequent death and
putrefaction may cause great inconvenience from effluvia. (_b_) Make
a strong solution of copperas water, and paint the walls of the whole
cellar, then pound up copperas, and scatter it along the sides of the
walls and into every hole where it can be thrown. (_c_) In the runs
and holes, lay a mixture of tar and broken glass. (_d_) Feed them
liberally for several days on a smooth surface, then damp the floor
and smear it with caustic potash; the rats, in running over it while
feeding at the bait, get their feet besmeared with it, which causes a
burning or corroding of the flesh. At the same time they lick their
feet to relieve the pain, and are either so annoyed or poisoned that
they leave the premises. (_e_) Scatter lime chloride in their haunts
and holes. (_f_) Having caught one, tar him all over, or coat him
with paste containing tincture of asafœtida, and turn him into the
hole again.
Traps.--(_g_) Scald common gin traps and set them at the holes,
covered with sawdust, avoiding touching the gins with the naked hand.
(_h_) Feed the rats for 3 or 4 nights successively, leaving the
traps (box traps) fixed open and baited with the following paste,
so that they may go in and out and feed at their ease. If the rats
are numerous and the premises extensive, take 4 lb. bread crumbs,
4 lb. flour, ½ pint treacle, 1 teaspoonful essence of anise, and ½
teaspoonful essence of musk; mix the whole well together, and bait
the traps. Several traps should be so prepared. On the night the rats
are to be taken, bait as usual, having the traps set for catching.
(_i_) Set a steel trap in the run and cover it with a butter cloth.
A fresh cloth must be used each time. (_j_) Fill a barrel about half
full of water. Make the cover ½ in. smaller all round than the inside
of the top of the barrel. Drive a nail or wire on each side of the
cover exactly opposite each other, as a pivot, and fit in the barrel,
so that a light weight will readily tip the cover. Put the bait on
top, in a firm way, and place an empty barrel or box near by. (_k_)
Mix 1 lb. oatmeal or flour, ½ oz. aniseed, 1 oz. cassia, 2 oz. white
sugar, all finely powdered; feed with this mixture for 5 nights at
least before you tilt up the trap, which must be concealed with straw
scented with 4 drops oil of rhodium, 8 drops oil of cinnamon, and 8
drops oil of caraway. The paper on which the food is placed must
also be scented with the same. When you cease to catch any at night,
feed again, and when you suppose all to be caught in one place,
remove the trap to another.
_Snakes._--(_a_) In all probability, the acclimation or encouragement
of certain animals which seek out snakes as their favourite food
will do more towards effecting extermination than anything else.
The mongoose enjoys a reputed pre-eminence in this respect which
is quite undeserved--it need hardly be said that the “antipathy”
which it is supposed to entertain toward its prey is a chimera born
of an argument by analogy to human prejudices. The ichneumon hunts
snakes to eat them; so do various foxes, tayras, rats, civets,
grisons, weasels, genets, paradoxures, and other members of the
_Viverridæ_ and _Mustelidæ_. Still more addicted to an ophidian diet
are pigs; it is said that Mauritius was cleared of venomous species
by a number of wild hogs turned loose there. Toads, frogs, fish,
lizards, newts, and even slow-worms devour young snakes; indeed,
it is only their popularity as an article of food that serves to
restrain their increase, for they are produced in broods of from
twenty to a hundred or more. But their greatest enemies are birds.
Peacocks, in particular, will desert the home where they are fed in
a district abounding with snakes; not long ago, six pairs of pea
fowl were employed to get rid of the vipers on an island off the
west coast of Scotland, which they rendered almost uninhabitable by
their abundance. Storks, pelicans, cassowaries, sunbitterns, cranes,
falcons, and some vultures are also perpetually on the look-out
for snakes, while the scientific title of the secretary bird,
_Serpentarius reptilivorus_, sufficiently indicates its proclivities.
(_b_) A pitfall of some kind sunk below the level of the ground in
an infested district, and furnished with water frogs, and a cage of
rats, or some such small deer, might help to rid the neighbourhood.
(_c_) For every one that may be expected to find its way into a trap,
however arranged, a dozen might certainly be taken, living or dead,
by those who would make a business of pursuit; and for capturing them
alive there is no safer or better appliance than the “twitch.” This
consists of a simple loop of string passed through an eye at the
end of a long crooked stick, and controlled by the hand. Directly a
snake is seen it is hooked out into the open, if need be, away from
all shelter, the noose dropped over its head and drawn up tight, and
in that way it can be carried, powerless to do harm, or deposited in
any receptacle which is ready for it. Collectors, too, would find
this little apparatus far more practicable than the net or tongs.
Places likely to form a resort for the deposition of eggs--situations
which combine warmth, moisture, and protection, as a rule--should
be diligently explored; and rocks or other fastnesses known to be
their favourite breeding grounds should, if possible, be frequently
disturbed by blasting. (A. Stradling, C.M.Z.S.)