64 The Book of Bugs. 



quitoes and bot-flies and and other things, he is too 

 good to live. 



With all these efforts to improve the situation, I still 

 found fleas in great abundance on my legs when I came 

 down to light the fire in the morning. I want to tell you 

 that to get fleas out of the house after they once get in 

 is no five-minute job. In my own case, the problem was 

 simplified by moving out of the house. I think burning it 

 down would have helped some. But there are many 

 people opposed to burning a new house just to get rid of 

 fleas. Perhaps they are right. It does look wasteful. 



Of all the practicable plans for the extermination of 

 these pests the one adopted by Professor Gage of the 

 McGraw Building of Cornell University is in my judg- 

 ment the most picturesque. Professor Gage had the 

 janitor of the building put on rubber boots. Then he 

 tied sticky fly-paper on the boots, sticky side out, and had 

 the janitor tramp around the rooms and halls for hours 

 together. The fleas jumped on the man's ankles in- 

 stinctively and stuck there. All, or nearly all (I like that 

 saving clause), were caught and died a gaumy death. It 

 seems a very good plan indeed. Tie sheets of sticky 

 fly-paper on the legs of the boots." Um, sounds easy, 

 doesn't it? I wonder- No matter. It doesn't sig- 



nify. I am glad I did not have to do the tying. 



Fleas lay their eggs loosely in the fur of the cat and 

 the dog. If the cat and the dog can be made to sleep on 

 one piece of carpet and this be shaken and swept ii?to the 

 fire every day, there will not be quite so many fleas, but 

 the eggs keep dropping off all the time and falling into 

 cracks in the floor and between straws of the matting. 

 They hatch in about fifty hours into little white grubs 

 that feed upon house-dust, the ravelings of carpets and 

 clothes, flakes of cuticle, and all such. After they cast 



