RELATION TO THE HOUSEHOLD 225 



and when they do, the insects work into and through 

 the wood in concealment, until suddenly there is a 

 collapse. In the tropics they get into floor boards and 

 the furniture resting on it, always mining out of sight 

 until there is a breakdown. 



Where the insects are plentiful their habits are well 

 known and house builders use all sorts of precautions to 

 keep them out and never leave furniture in one place 

 very long. In the more northern countries where T. 

 flavipes only occurs, or is the only common species, 

 usually fence- or stair-posts only or the timbers of 

 bams and other out-buildings are attacked and then 

 the problem is getting at and destroying the central 

 nest, which is usually in an old stump or log not far 

 away. Only occasionally do they get into the beams or 

 timbers of dwellings or other inhabited buildings; but 

 when they do, they usually work until the timber is 

 ruined before their presence is suspected. In such 

 cases there is nothing to do but remove the infested 

 material and put in iron or, before putting in another 

 wooden support, treating it with some creosote or other 

 poisonous preparation unless the central nest can be 

 found and destroyed. They have been known to get 

 into a store-house and to ruin large quantities of sup- 

 plies before their presence was even suspected, and 

 into a masonry vault containing records, leaving the 

 pile of books and records fair to all outward seeming, 

 but a mass of cells and excrement behind it. 



Yet a little further up come the members of the 

 order Orthoptera, including some of its most unlovely 

 fellows, the roaches; but also a few that have appealed 

 more to poets and dreamers in the chimney corner — 

 the crickets, including of course those on the hearth. 

 Crickets are generally accidentals and their presence is 

 usually due to their search for shelter. They are suflEi- 

 15 



