iiO SEEDS, STUKES, AND WOOD. 



tar would be no objection to its use. In house work a good coat or 

 two of strong coarse paint would certainly stop the mischief to a great 

 extent. Whitewash is sometimes recommended, but the other above- 

 mentioned applications are much surer where circumstances allow of 

 their use. 



Good scrubbiugs with soft-soap wash with a little paraffin in it 

 would be serviceable for floors, but it should be remembered that the 

 special season for preventive treatment is late spring or early summer, 

 when the beetles are comimj out and etjg-lmjiny. 



An application called " Duresco," which is stated to be a sort of 

 washable water-colour free from objectionable smell, has been recom- 

 mended for painting over the surface of floors on which goods were 

 required to be laid (as in large stores) ; but I have not as yet had a 

 report of the results from a locality where I understand the material 

 is being experimented with on a large scale, and I am not myself 

 acquainted with it. 



But in remedial measures against the attacks of these wood-boring 

 beetles, the great thing is to take them in time. To those unacquainted 

 with the nature of the attack, a piece of infested wood often merely 

 looks (until the evil has been long established) as if the beams or 

 furniture were injured by more or fewer punctures, and for the most 

 part in the case of inquiries addressed to myself, the mischief has 

 passed the point in which there is much hope that it can be remedied. 



" Silver Fish " ; ''Bristle-tails." Lepisma sacchanna, hmn. 

 " Fire-brat." Lepisma domestica, Packard, = Thermohia fumorum, Eov. 



Lepisma sacchakina, magnitied (after Sir John Lubbock). 



The so-called " Silver Fish " are well known to housekeepers as 

 narrow bright silvery little creatures, about a third of an inch long, 



