6o 



PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY 



Meal Worm. The yellowish or brownish meal worm (Fig. 36, 

 B and C) that sometimes appears in oatmeal and other meals 

 is the larva of a dark, oblong beetle. Heating the meal will kill 

 the eggs, larvae, and adults. 



Carpet Beetles. -- Perhaps the most exasperating of all house- 

 hold pests are the carpet beetles or " buffalo moths " and es- 

 pecially the clothes moths. The adult buffalo moth is a dark, 

 white-mottled beetle (Fig. 37, A) about three sixteenths of an 

 inch long. Its larvae, which are oval, hairy-coated, and about 

 one fourth of an inch long (Fig. 37, B), feed on the wool in carpets, 



FIG. 37. Insects of the household. 



A, carpet beetle ; B, larva of carpet beetle ; C, clothes moth ; D, larva of 



clothes moth. (After Riley.) 



usually working underneath and following a crack in the floor. 

 When an attack has been discovered, the carpet should be taken 

 up and sprayed with gasoline, and the cracks of the floor should 

 be scrubbed with hot suds and then treated with gasoline. 



Clothes Moth. -- Clothes moths (Fig. 37, C) are small grayish 

 insects that lay their eggs in woolens or furs. The larva? (Fig. 

 37, D) which eat these animal textiles are to be feared only in the 

 summer in the North, but they are busy throughout the year in 

 the South. A few precautions will prevent serious injury. 

 Winter clothes laid away over summer should be taken out 

 occasionally, hung in the sunlight, and thoroughly beaten or 

 brushed to free them from the intruders. Moth balls help keep 



