386 Avmial Report /or 1911 of the Zoologist. 



Miscellaneous Pests. 



Advice has been given in many cases where buildings have 

 been infested by various creatures. A common example is the 

 furniture beetle, Anohium domesticum, the usual cause of 

 " worm-eaten " furniture and wooden fixtui-es in the house. 

 If " sawdust " continues to trickle from the borings the pest is 

 still active and is a source of danger to all the wood work, and 

 measures should be taken to destroy it. The simplest plan is 

 to paint with a 2 per cent, solution of corrosive sublimate. 



A remarkable case was reported in which some sheet lead 

 fully an eighth of an inch thick was perforated like a sieve by 

 these beetles, presumably in their efforts to attain the under- 

 lying wood. 



Ants are sometimes a great nuisance in the house, and one 

 case that was brought to the attention of the Zoologist was 

 worth noting. A considerable amount had been expended in 

 structural alterations to exclude these insects which had forced 

 their way into a house through double walls with a considerable 

 space between, the mortar being perfectly riddled by their 

 borings, but they still continued to enter. A plentiful use of 

 naphthalene in those parts of the house that they affected 

 cleared them all out in the space of a few hours, and the plague 

 has not recurred. 



There is, however, a very minute ant, Monomoriuin 

 pharaonis, which has been imported into England compara- 

 tively recently and which lives only in houses, and as it 

 establishes itself in places often very difficult to get at, it is 

 exceedingly troublesome to eradicate. The only plan is to 

 attempt to locate the nest and to destroy it by fumigation with 

 sulphur. The wingless workers are not more than one-twelfth 

 of an inch in length. 



In connection with the common cockroach or " black 

 beetle " a curious observation was made during the past 

 summer. A house became infested and numbers of the insects 

 were caught in traps. It was then noticed that they seemed to 

 come from one particular hole. This was stopped, and the 

 plague ceased. Ordinarily, when cockroaches obtain entry into 

 a house they establish themselves and breed in chinks of the 

 flooring or behind wainscoting, but in this case they simply 

 entered the house in search of food and departed again, and as 

 soon as the entrance passage was closed no further trouble was 

 experienced. Possibly the unusually warm weather counter- 

 acted their desire for indoor shelter. 



Some cases wei-e reported of the infestation of rooms by 

 mites. Generally there was some obvious source of the attack, 

 such as the close neighbourhood of a hayloft, but the expulsion 

 of these creatures is often a troublesome matter. 



