32 COCKROACHES, 
of various sorts, yet nothing is more likely than that presently they will 
recover, and then, if they have only, as often happens, been thrown 
into the dust-bin, they will fly back in the case of the little German 
Cockroach, or creep or fly back according to whether they are males 
or females in the case of our common kind, and all the trouble of 
trapping will have been wasted. 
For ordinary remedies, not needing special care or expense, I have 
found Hardiman’s insect powder answer as well as could be wished for 
getting rid of the Common Cockroach, and probably this or Keating’s, 
or many other insect powders, would all answer in lessening also the 
numbers of the smaller Cockroach, if applied by being thoroughly 
blown into all accessible crevices last thing at night, when the rooms 
were about to be shut up. But this only where the apparently dead 
insects are swept up and burnt or scalded, or in some way quite 
certainly got rid of. Borax scattered in powder at night on a kitchen 
floor also answers; and so does a trap of a little beer, or beer and 
sugar, placed at the bottom of a bowl, with a few pieces of stick set 
slanting from the floor, and supported at the upper end against the 
bowl. These make roads by which the ‘‘roaches,” large or small, 
can travel upwards, and when at the top, fall into the beer below, and 
become temporarily so stupified that they may be destroyed without 
further trouble than throwing them into the fire. 
But from some reason I do not understand, it has appeared to me 
that, after a few nights’ use of any special remedy, the Cockroaches 
(even though they were not all destroyed) in some way found out that 
the trap, or powder, was to be avoided, and did not come within its 
influence, so that it was desirable to change the plan. 
In Prof. Riley’s paper, referred to at p. 31, the following passage 
is well worth notice :— 
‘‘ Without condemning other useful measures or remedies, like 
borax, I would repeat here what I have already urged in these 
columns, viz. that in the free and persistent use of California buhach, 
or some other fresh and reliable brand of Pyrethrum or Persian insect 
powder, we have the most satisfactory means of dealing with this and 
the other roaches mentioned. Just before nightfall go into the 
infested rooms and puff it into all crevices, under base-boards, into 
the drawers and cracks of old furniture,—in fact, wherever there is a 
crack,—and in the morning the floor will be covered with dead and 
dying or demoralized and paralysed roaches, which may easily be 
swept up, or otherwise collected and burned.’’* 
In regard to stopping cracks, such as those by hearthstones, 
through which the Cockroaches come up, and which at times not 
* See ‘‘ Cockroaches,” by Prof. C. V. Riley. ‘Insect Life,’ U.S.A. Department 
of Agriculture, vol. ii. No. 9, pp. 266-269. 
