INSECTS AFFECTING MAN AND ANIMALS 395 



thoroughly with tobacco water, or dilute carbolic acid, or dilute 

 kerosene emulsion. Ointments made of kerosene and lard, 

 or sulphur one part and lard four parts, are effective. It is 

 possible to fumigate an animal by inclosing all but the head in 

 a sack or tent and burning sulphur or tobacco inside the tent. 



The MaUophaga do not suck blood, but feed on bits of dry 

 feathers or hair which they bite off with their small sharp jaws. 

 They are commonly called bird-lice, because most of them 

 infest, birds, but some species are found on mammals where 

 they feed on the hair or epidermal scales. The injury done to 

 the host is due chiefly to the irritation caused by the insects 

 wandering over the body. They sometimes occur in such 

 numbers as seriously to affect barnyard fowls. The common 

 chicken-louse, Menopon pallidum, is about one-twentieth of 

 an inch long and is an unusually swift and active little pest. 

 The affected fowls make an effo'rt to rid themselves of the pest 

 by bathing in fine dust. Good dust baths should always be 

 available for this purpose, and the roosts should be kept clean. 

 Badly infected poultry houses should be sprayed with kerosene 

 or fumigated by burning sulphur in them, and then thoroughly 

 whitewashed. 



Dogs, horses or other domestic animals infected with biting 

 lice may be treated as recommended for sucking lice. 



Bedbugs Although bedbugs, Acanthia lectularia, usually 

 occur only in neglected houses, they may be accidentally in- 

 troduced into the cleanest places, and they are often met with 

 in hotels. They cannot fly, as they have no wings, but they are 

 active crawlers and may migrate from house to house when food 

 becomes scarce. They are more commonly distributed on 

 clothing, especially bed clothing and upholstered furniture. 

 When crushed they give off a very disagreeable odor which is 

 due to the secretions from glands at the base of the abdomen. 

 They are nocturnal in their habits, hiding away in cracks in 

 bedsteads or other furniture or in the walls during the day. 

 Their very flat soft bodies are capable of being squeezed into 

 seemingly impossible places. The mouth-parts are fitted for 

 piercing and suckingblood. Normally they feed only on blood, 



