136 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



San Francisco with the sailors wearing gloves on their 

 hands while asleep, to keep the hordes of roaches from 

 gnawing off their finger-nails. These particular roaches 

 are the most annoying ones on board ships. Moreover, 

 they are responsible for serious injury to books because 

 they like the starchy matter among the bindings. Insect 

 Life records an instance of serious injury by this roach to 

 the bindings of books in the National Treasurer's Depart- 

 ment at Washington. Many of the books in the basement 

 had their backs eaten off although they were up on the 



higher shelves and 

 in dry situations. 

 Many of the reports, 

 bound in cloth, had 

 been badly eaten 

 both on the backs 

 and covers, thus 

 presenting a cor- 

 roded appearance. 

 It seemed that the 

 American roach went no higher than one or two stories 

 and few of them above the basement. 



The third species, Blatta orientalis, is known as the 

 Oriental cockroach (Fig. 39) or "black-beetle," the latter 

 name being applied to it in England especially. It is 

 quite widely distributed in the United States, especially 

 in the East and South. It is the most common roach 

 in England and probably came to America with the 

 early colonists. It came originally from the tropical 

 parts of Asia, but has adapted itself to its changed 

 environment with very great success. It is a dark 

 brown roach, becoming almost black in the older female 



Fig. 39. — Oriental cockroach. (X f.) 



