362 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



mediately begin to gnaw the substances within their reach, and 

 cover themselves with the fragments, shaping them into little hol- 

 low rolls and lining them with silk. They pass the summer with- 

 in these rolls, some carrying them about on their backs as they 

 move along, and others fastening them to the substance they are 

 eating ; and they enlarge them from time to time by adding por- 

 tions to the two open extremities, and by gores set into the sides, 

 which they slit open for this purpose. Concealed within their 

 movable cases, or in their lint-covered burrows, they carry on the 

 work of destruction through the summer ; but in the autumn they 

 leave off eating, make fast their habitations, and remain at rest 

 and seemingly torpid through the winter. Early in the spring 

 they change to chrysalids within their cases, and in about twenty 

 days afterwards are transformed to winged moths, and come forth, 

 and fly about in the evening, till they have paired and are ready to 

 lay their eggs. They then contrive to slip through cracks into 

 dark closets, chests, and drawers, under the edges of carpets, 

 in the folds of curtains and of garments hanging up, and into va- 

 rious other places, where they immediately lay the foundation for 

 a new colony of destructive moth-worms. 



Early in June the prudent housekeeper will take care to beat 

 up their quarters and put them to flight, or to disturb them so as 

 to defeat their designs and destroy their eggs and young. With 

 this view ward-robes, closets, drawers, and chests will be laid 

 open, and emptied of their contents, and all woollen garments, 

 and bedding, furs, feathers, carpets, curtains, and the like, will 

 be removed and exposed to the air, and to the heat of the sun, 

 for several hours together, and will not be put back in their pla- 

 ces without a thorough brushing, beating, or shaking. By these 

 means, the moths and their eggs will be dislodged and destroyed. 

 Ln old houses, that are much infested by moths, the cracks in the 

 floors, in the wainscot, around the walls and shelves of closets, 

 and even in the furniture used for holding clothes, should be 

 brushed over with spirits of turpentine. Sheets of paper 

 sprinkled with spirits of turpentine, camphor in coarse powder, 

 or leaves of tobacco, should be placed among the clothes, when 

 they are laid aside for the summer. Furs, plumes, and other 

 small articles, not in constant use, are best preserved by being 



