ii6 The Book of Bugs. 



place and makes up his mind to stay, it is no easy thing 

 to exterminate him. They have as many ways of get- 

 ting in as the Norfolk-Howards, and the builder has had 

 them in view from the start, for when he began to build 

 he walked the floor and walked the floor, asking himself 

 the question, 'How can I arrange it so that there will 

 be the maximum number of pieces of wood in the trim 

 under which roaches may mid a home? ' Also it must 

 never be forgotten that the battle is not with some poor- 

 spirited thing just starting out in life and easily discour- 

 aged, but with a foe backed by countless ages of in- 

 herited experience. I would not for the world utter one 

 word of carping criticism against cockroach poisons. I 

 believe them to be all they are represented to be in the 

 advertisements, and even more. I believe that if all the 

 roaches could be persuaded to taste a little, just to see 

 what it was like, without doubt they would perish ever- 

 lastingly. But that's just it. They won't. Fond as 

 they are of flour-paste, put but one tiny smidgen of 

 arsenic in that paste and no roach will come near it. 

 That is how the rebound volumes of the Treasury De- 

 partment have been preserved from the slightest subse- 

 quent depredations. Also, there have been many cases 

 where human beings have been fatally poisoned by what 

 was meant for cockroaches. One case I remember in 

 particular where the poison was taken for Rochelle salts, 

 which it resembles in no other way than the sound of its 

 name. 



It is said, though, that chocolate and borax in equal 

 parts, mixed and powdered finely in a mortar, while 

 harmless to man, will kill the pests. They are extremely 

 fond of chocolate, and their passion for it makes them 

 take the borax, which is highly deleterious to their 

 systems. 



