4 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 681, 
marked structural differences, which have led to its late reference 
to a distinct genus—Thermobia. An Italian entomologist, Rovelli, 
has described this insect under the descriptive name furnorum, 
from its inhabiting ovens, and the name of the genus to which it is 
now assigned by English entomologists is also descriptive of its heat- 
loving character. A Dutch entomologist, Oudemans, reports that he 
has found it in abundance in all bakehouses that he has examined 
in Amsterdam, where it is well known to bakers and has received a 
number of familiar names. 
REMEDIES. 
Advantage may be taken of the liking of these insects for fabrics and 
other articles containing starch to poison them by slipping into all the 
crevices where they occur—in bookshelves and backs of mantels, 
under washboards, and in the bottoms of drawers—hbits of cardboard 
on which a thin boiled starch paste poisoned with from 3 to 5 per 
cent powdered white arsenic has been spread and dried. The arsenic 
should be added to the flour and sufficient water used to make a thin 
paste by boiling. One of our correspondents reports complete relief 
by this measure. 
The silverfish readily succumbs to pyrethrum, and wherever this 
can be applied, as on bookshelves, it furnishes one of the best means 
of control. 
Sodium fluorid,! now recognized as one of the most efficient roach 
powders, will doubtless also be equally effective against silverfish. 
Where such course is possible it may be dusted by hand or with a 
powder blower in the situations where silverfish occur. 
For starched clothing and similar objects liable to injury by it, 
frequent handling and airing and the destruction by hand of all 
specimens discovered is to be recommended, in addition to the reme- 
dies noted above. Little damage is likely to occur in houses except 
in comparatively moist situations or where stored objects remain 
undisturbed for a year or more. 
1 Marlatt, C. L. Cockroaches. U.S. Dept. Agr., Farmers’ Bulletin 658, 15 p., 5 fig., 1915. Reference 
to sodium flourid against roaches, p. 12. 
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1915 
