64 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Species injurious to woolen goods, etc., L. 0. Howard and G. L. Marlatt 

 (pp. 58-69). — Here are treated the carpet beetle or buffalo moth (Anthre- 

 nns scrophularice), the black carpet beetle (Attagenus piceus), the clothes 

 moth (Tinea pellionella, Tineola biselliella, and Trichophaga tapetzella). 

 With regard to the carpet beetle, the author deprecates the practice of 

 using carpets rather than rugs, and advises thorough house cleaning 

 twice instead of once a year. The black carpet beetle is noted also as 

 feeding upon vegetable products. The clothes moth is to be treated 

 where it has gained access to clothing, garments, carpet, etc., by the use 

 of benzine or naphtha or by sponging carefully with a weak solution of 

 corrosive sublimate in alcohol, made not quite strong enough to leave 

 a white stain. They can be prevented from attacking garments, etc., 

 by storing the latter in cedar chests or wardrobes or by the use of insect 

 repellants such as camphor or naphthalan cones or cedar chips, or, 

 much better, by placing the garments in boxes and sealing up all cracks 

 with strips of gummed wrapping paper. 



Species injurious to wall paper, books, timbers, etc., G. L. Marlatt (pp. 

 70-83). — The white ant ( Termes flaripes), the silver fish (Lepisma saccha- 

 rina), the book louse (Atropos dirinatoria), and the American spring tail 

 (Lepidocrgtus americanus) are here discussed. Uelative to the termite 

 it is noted that complete dryness in buildings is an important means of 

 rendering them safe from attack and that libraries or buildings in which 

 articles of value are stored should be surrounded on all sides by clear 

 spaces and graveled or asphalted walks, since the insects can not 

 withstand the exposure of traveling across them. Where colonies of 

 the insect have been established they may sometimes be destroyed by 

 an injection of kerosene into their retreat. The silver tish, which 

 damages books and drugs and articles containing paste, may be dis- 

 posed of by scattering pyrethrum in places frequented by it. It is 

 stated that little damage is apt to occur except in moist situations or 

 where objects are stored and not disturbed for a considerable length of 

 time. The book lice have been extraordinarily abundant in barns and 

 stables, sometimes causing considerable annoyance and damage by get- 

 ting into cupboards, on window ledges, or library shelves, or especially 

 among books and papers seldom used, where it feeds on any animal or 

 vegetable matter obtainable. 



The remedies recommended for them are the steaming of carpets and 

 bedding, washing places with soapsuds, rep aper in g or painting of walls 

 and the application of benzine or gasolene freely to all retreats or to 

 furniture which can not be otherwise cleaned : fumigation with brim 

 stone or bisulphid of carbon will destroy many of the insects in rooms 

 which can be tightly closed for several hours. 



Cockroaches and house ants, G. L. Marlatt (pp. 84-99). — The cock- 

 roaches {Periplaneta americana, P. orientalis, P. australasice, and Ectobia 

 germanica) are treated. Their injury to bookbinding, to stores of pro 

 visions, etc., are noted; and their habits and life history fully brought 



