72 SOME COMMON HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



ROACHES, COCK ROACHES, CROTON BUGS, 



A hard pest to control if it once obtains a foothold. Par- 

 ticularly, is this SO, where a family lives in a flat, since infesta- 

 tion from one flat to another is comparatively easy. Under 

 favorable conditions, that is, in a house standing by itself 

 they can be combated, though it requires perseverance, with 

 some degree of success. A family known to the entomologist 

 has conquered roaches by the persistent use of powdered borax 

 in the kitchen where they occurred. This was dusted in all 

 cracks and crevices about the room daily (particularly, in the 

 evening), for two weeks, care being taken to use it liberally 

 along the entire length of mop board wherever there was a 

 crack large enough to hide a roach, and its use was persisted 

 in for some time after all insects had apparently disappeared. 

 Firms which sell bakers' supplies generally carry in stock a 

 patent powder, said to be extremely effective. 



Hydrocyanic acid gas used in a house standing apart from 

 others would kill all such pests, but as the fumes are fatal to 

 human beings as well, its use calls for extreme care. 



FLEAS. 



Housekeepers who have been away during the summer, 

 leaving their houses closed, are frequently surprised, upon 

 their return in the fall, if the proper conditions as to moisture 

 have prevailed during their absence, to find the house overrun 

 with fleas. They ascribe this condition to all sorts of causes, 

 but rarely hit upon the right explanation. 



The writer has yet to see a dog or cat which, at ^mc 

 time, is not troubled with these pests, and, if proper precau- 

 tions are not taken, rugs or carpets or matting are quite sure 

 to be overrun with the pests, as well as the animals themselves. 



The eggs of this species are laid among the hairs of the 

 dog or cat (according to some authorities in the bedding of 

 the animals and not on the hairs) and readily drop off. 

 Hence they may be distributed in any room to which these 

 animals have access, and will be found particularly numerous 

 in places which they especially frequent, such as rugs before 

 the fire and the like. The maggots, which hatch from the 

 eggs in about two weeks, are white, footless, with a pale yel- 

 low head. They live in the dirt of undisturbed carpets or 

 rugs, or beneath the same in cracks and crevices of the floor, 



