118 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



that the bedbug actually inoculated other people 

 with it. 



It is extremely desirable to avoid the bites of this insect 

 if possible, especially in hotels where beds are occupied 

 by so many different people ; but this is very hard to do, 

 in fact, almost impossible if one travels much. 



CONTROL OF THE BEDBUG 



In the first place, iron or brass bedsteads are much more 

 desirable than wooden beds in a fight against this pest. 

 The former offer very few cracks and crevices and what 

 there are may be easily reached. 



There are several old-fashioned remedies for the bedbug 

 that are efficient weapons in the hands of a persistent and 

 thorough housekeeper. Kerosene oil, gasoline, or benzine 

 will kill bedbugs if forced into cracks and crevices with a 

 feather or with a hand syringe. The treatment must be 

 thorough and should be made several times in succes- 

 sion, allowing intervals of three or four days between 

 applications to give time for any untouched eggs to 

 hatch. 



A mixture of corrosive sublimate one ounce, alcohol 

 one pint, and spirits of turpentine one-fourth pint, painted 

 in the cracks of a bedstead with a feather, is an old fash- 

 ioned remedy and an effective one. Since bedbugs are 

 sucking insects and are killed by contact, it is hard to see 

 how the corrosive sublimate adds anything to the effective- 

 ness of the remedy. If these pests were biting and chew- 

 ing insects and there was thus some probability of their 

 eating some of the poison, there might be more reason for 

 including it. It is possible that, as its name indicates, 



