164 



of the leading hotel of the city of Terre Haute. Where it once obtains a- 

 foothold and the surroundings of temperature and food supply are favor- 

 able it is almost impossible to eradicate, as its small flattened form en- 

 ables it to hide and breed in cracks and crevices which none of the other 

 roaches can enter. 



Like many other omnivorous animals, Croton bugs find in wheaten 

 flour a food substance which is rich in nutrition and easily digested, and 

 so they prefer wheat breads and starchy materials to all other foods. ( >n 

 account of this liking they often do much harm to cloth-bound books 

 by gnawing their covers in search of the paste beneath. They also seem 

 to have a peculiar liking for paints of various kinds, and in the office of 

 the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, at Washington, have done much 

 damage by eating off the blue and red paints from the drawings of im- 

 portant maps.* Townend Glover, in the U. S. Ag. Rep. for 1874, states 

 that in his office "They made a raid on a box of water colors where 

 they devoured the cakes of paint, vermilion, cobalt and umber alike ; 

 and the only vestiges left were the excrements in the form of small 

 pellets of various colors in the bottom of the box." 



In giving a remedy for this, and other species of Blattidse which fre- 

 quent houses, I cannot do better than quote from Dr. Riley's excellent 

 article in " Insect Life." He says: "Without condemning other useful 

 measures or remedies like borax, I would repeat that in the free and pt- r- 

 sistent use of California Buhach, or some other fresh and reliable brand 

 of Pyrethrum or Persian Insect Powder, we have the most satisfactory 

 means of dealing with these roaches. 



" Just before nightfall go into the infested rooms and puff into all 

 crevices, under base-boards, into the drawers and cracks of old furniture 

 — in fact wherever there is a crack— and in the morning the floor will be 

 covered with dead and dying or demoralized and paralyzed roaches, which 

 may easily be swept up or otherwise collected and burned. 



" With cleanliness, and persistency in these methods, the pest may be sub- 

 stantially driven out of a house, and should never be allowed to get full 

 possession by immigrants from without." 



For no other insects have so many quack remedies been urged and are 



Riley, "Insect Life. 



