MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 301 
climates. "The damage they do is not only in the products 
actually consumed, but in the soiling and rendering nauseous of 
everything with which they come in contact. They leave, where- 
ever they occur in any numbers, a fetid, nauseous odor, well 
known as the 'roachy' odor, which is persistent, and cannot be 
removed from shelves and dishes without washing with soap and 
boiling water. Food supplies so tainted are beyond redemption. 
This odor comes partly from their excrement, but chiefly from a 
dark-colored fluid exuded from the mouth of the insect, with 
which it stains its runways, and also in part, doubtless, from the 
scent glands, which occur on the bodies of both sexes between 
certain segments of the abdomen, and which secrete an oily liquid 
possessing a very characteristic and disagreeable odor. It fre- 
quently happens that shelves on which dishes are placed become 
impregnated with this roachy odor, and this is imparted to 
and retained bj^ dishes to such an extent that everything served 
in them, particularly liquids, as coffee or tea, will be noticed to 
have a peculiar, disgusting, foreign taste and odor, the source of 
which may be a puzzle and will naturally be supposed to come 
from the food rather than from the dish" (Marlatt). 
Remedies for Roaches in dwellings are innumerable, but few 
are effective and satisfactory. Aside from closing up and fumi- 
gating the entire premises with hydrocyanic-acid gas (a deadly 
poison, consequently dangerous and inconvenient to use), dusting 
the haunts of the insects with powdered sodium fluoride is per- 
haps as effective as any means of keeping the household species 
in check. 1 Glass jars laid on the side and baited with banana 
peel or molasses, the mouth closed by thrusting into it a paper 
cone with opening wide enough for entrance of the Roaches, have 
been used with good results, sometimes capturing them alive in 
considerable numbers. Poisoned paste, pyrethrum powder, 
powdered borax and chocolate, plaster-of-paris and flour (one 
part to four) with water placed near by, are other remedies 
frequently used. "Rather than put faith in half. of those which 
have been published, it were better to rely on the recipe . . . 
current among the Mexicans: To get rid of Cockroaches, — Catch 
three and put them in a bottle, and so carry them to where two 
Farmers' Bulletin no. 658, U. S. Dept. Agric. 
