408 



The Country GaitlciJOJnau 



plied to check its amazing increase each year 

 by destroying the eggs. These are deposited, 

 generally, in scarcely visible cracks and holes 

 in the wood-work of bedsteads and skirtmg 

 boards. There they might remain until the 

 proper period should arrive for the com- 

 mencement of their warfare on the human 

 species. The great object of the housemaid 

 must be to displaceandwashawaytheseembryo 

 torments, and this, with her scouring brush 

 and cold soap and water, she may very 

 materially effect. The bristles of her brush 

 will enter where no larger implement could, 

 and detach them from the places where they 

 adhere. If housemaids once in the Aveek 

 during the summer were to scrub with their 

 brushes and cold water all the wood-work of 

 each bed, and to carry the wet mop or scour- 

 ing flannel under the beds daily and by the skirt- 

 ing board, ;_the increase of this odious insect 

 would be prevented, especially if the bedding 

 and hangings were also frequently cleared of 

 dust by brushing or shaking them out in the 

 open air. 



Bedsteads much infested should be taken 

 to pieces twice a-year, in the spring and 

 autumn, and the joints and head-board should 

 be Avell scrubbed with the scrubbing brush. 

 For those who doubt this truth, are subjoined 

 such recipes as have been adopted in some 

 houses, and which for a short time may have 

 checked the evil in them. 



I. Tar-water washed over the wood-work 

 of bedsteads. 2. A solution of potash also 

 applied to the frame-work of bedsteads. 3. 

 A paste composed of Scotch snuff and soft 

 soap, to be inserted within the joints or 

 cracks in the wooden parts of bedsteads. 4. 

 Bug poison : spirits of wine, half pint ; spirits 

 of turpentine, half pint ; crude sal-ammoniac, 

 I oz. ; corrosive sublimate, i oz. ; camphor, 

 1 oz. This mixture should be inserted into 

 the joints of bedsteads with a syringe, and 

 with a sponge fastened to a stick, every 

 other part of the Avood-work must be washed 

 with it. Spirit of turpentine also kills the 

 insects, though it is more volatile, and there- 

 fore less preventive and secure than the 

 former recipes. 



Many poisons are to be purchased at 

 chemists for the destruction of bugs ; but it is 



unpleasant, if not dangerous, to have such 

 mixtures in a house, and, Avith confidence Ave 

 may assert that they are all far less effectual 

 than the frequent application of the scouring 

 brush and cold soap and AA^ater to the bed- 

 steads, and daily searching habits of cleanli- 

 ness in respect to the other parts of the bed 

 furniture. 



\\c ^\■ill add the following precautionary 

 hints. The heads of all bedsteads should 

 stand a few inches away from the walls. If 

 there be any cracks in the paper behind the 

 bed's head they should be carefully pasted 

 over Avith fresh paper ; or, if the paper become 

 loose from the Avail, that also should be again 

 closed fast. Bugs often harbour in plaster- 

 Avork ; but unless the paper be broken or 

 loose, they cannot find their Avay through it. 

 If it be suspected that the enemy is secreted 

 under the skirting-board it may be blocked 

 up by pasting, or by glueing strong brown 

 paper over the chink between the skirting- 

 board and the floor. 



XVII. THE .MOTH. 



The moth is a pretty, yet formidable, enemy 

 in a house. In all woollen manufactures, 

 blankets, flannels, moreen curtains, carpets, 

 as Avell as in furs, and amidst feathers, it seeks 

 to form its nest and to deposit its eggs ; 

 Avhence in the spring of the year issue the 

 larvae Avhich from such substances derive 

 nourishment. In this stage of the insect's ex- 

 istence the ruin takes place of the fabrics upon 

 Avhich it feeds. This is visible in the in- 

 numerable small circular holes through Avhich 

 it has eaten, and Avhich, destroying the 

 strength and tenacity of the material render it 

 Avorthless. 



]\Iany persons suppose that moths are pro- 

 duced in clothes that are laid by, merely by 

 their being shut up in closed places ; but this 

 is an error. None of the little larvae or 

 caterpillars of the moth, that really do the 

 mischief, ever appear among clothes or articles 

 of any kind, provided none of the winged 

 moths can have access to them to lay their eggs 

 there, for no insects can be engendered other- 

 Avise than by the usual method of propagation. 

 The moth is an insect that, like all other 

 Avinged insects goes through three transforma- 



