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Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



in this warfare. Clothes-moths and carpet-beetles often have undis- 

 puted sway in the closed and shuttered parlors and "company" bed- 

 rooms which are too often a cold, gloomy and cheerless part of the 

 farm home. The use of rugs on hardwood or smooth and painted 

 floors will also help very much to discourage several very annoying 

 household pests. Insects do not like to be disturbed too often, and 

 the old, uneven floors with their large cracks full of dirt offer ideal breed- 

 ing-places for certain insects. Cleanliness should not always stop 



Fig. 20. Liiile black ant — (a) female; (b) winged female; (c) male; 

 (d) worker; (e) pupa; (/) larva; (g) egg; all enlarged. — (Adapted 

 from Howard.) 



inside the house, for much can be done by looking after the immediate 

 surroundings of the home. In many cases the hordes of flies, mosquitoes 

 and ants which come into the house breed within a short distance from 

 the doors. Cesspools, drains for kitchen refuse, the often neglected 

 closet, exposed piles of horse manure and the family rain-barrel or tub 

 are prolific breeding-sources for mosquitoes and flies. Now that it has 

 been demonstrated that flies may carry typhoid-fever germs on their 

 feet and mouth-parts to inoculate food on which they may walk, and 

 that malarial fevers are transmitted only through the agency of certain 

 kinds of mosquitoes, much attention should be given to the immediate 



