38 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



CYANIDE BOTTLE 



Mr. H. S. Surface, M.S., of the Pennsylvania 

 Department of Agriculture, advises the dropping 

 of a limip of cyanide of potassium the size of a 

 small hickory nut into the bottom of an empty 

 bottle and covering it with dry plaster of Paris, 

 after which he tells us to pour enough water on 

 the plaster of Paris to make it set as you do cement. 

 The proper way to dry this bottle is to set it upside 

 down and allow it to drain until the plaster hardens. 

 Next cut out a piece of blotting paper just the 

 right size to fit over the plaster of Paris, like a 

 gun wad over a charge of powder. It should be 

 large enough to make it necessary to use force to 

 crowd it down on the plaster, where it will then 

 stay as a protection both to the insects and the 

 plaster (Fig. 18). A slumber bottle or poison 

 bottle of this kind must be kept tightly corked at 

 all times except when the cork is momentarily re- 

 moved in order to drop an insect into the bottle. 

 A cream bottle makes a good slumber chamber. 

 Of course, any boy with common sense will know 

 better than to put his own nose over a bottle full 

 of fumes poisonous enough to kill insects. To say 

 the least, the breathing of these fumes will do him 



