August is, 1913 



591 



woodwork and painted it over. This is 

 probably one reason why so few slatted 

 blinds are seen in Florida. 



I have just alluded to the silver moths, 

 and tliey certainly are a pest here, and no 

 mistake. Every thing woolen must be care- 

 fully tied up in a paper bag or protected 

 some way, for they would be sure to eat it 

 to shreds. Of course, moth-balls are some- 

 thing of a remedy, but not entirely so. 

 Where we kept quite a quantity of moth- 

 balls, there were very few silver moths. 



This leads me to my third objectionable 

 feature here in Florida — the roaches. I be- 

 lieve these are sometimes called cockroaches, 

 but I don't just like that name. The ones 

 we have down here are much larger than 

 those commonly seen in the North — at least 

 they are larger than any I have ever seen 

 there. They are so big that they make a 

 pretty good bite for chickens when thi'own 

 to them, as poultry are very fond of them. 

 They are great black bugs, but very tJiin. 

 I suppose they are thin on purpose so they 

 can slide through small ci'acks between 

 doors, windows, and almost anywhere else. 

 On account of their thinness, and their hab- 

 it of pushing in to almost every crack or 

 crevice, it seems almost impossible to "fence 

 them out." Of course, there are i^oisons for 

 them, because they are voracious eaters; but 

 if you poison the cockroaches and throw 

 them to the chickens the poison will kill the 

 chickens also, so there is not very much poi- 

 soning done here. Cockroaches are a nui- 

 sance, because they are always hungry for 

 any thing in the line of starch or mucilage. 

 They make it their principal business in life 

 to eat up the papers and wrappers, or any 

 thing that is pasted on to a box, bottle, jar, 

 or any tlung else. I even had a little bottle 

 with a label " Strychnine " pasted on it, 

 and about the first thing they did was to eat 

 off the label. I suppose they thought if they 

 got the label off they would be immune to 

 the etfects of the poison, wliich proceeding 

 is, after all, about as sensible as some of the 

 remedies that some human beings take for 

 the ills that atfect humanity. Now, we have 

 found by experience that there is no use 

 trying to label any thing down here. It 

 seems as though they have a mania to hunt 

 up the most important words in the label 

 and eat that out fii'st. When you come to 

 examine your medicine, eatables, etc., that 

 have been carefully labeled and i)ut away, 

 you will tind that the labels are not readable 

 on account of the cockroaches. I am not 

 quite sure, but I think that, when they can 

 not find any thing else to eat, there are cer- 

 tain kinds of paper that have something in 

 their makeup which tliey manage to subsist 



on; for it seems to be a passion with them 

 to riddle every tlung in the line of books 

 and papers that they can get at. The re- 

 deeming feature of the cockroaches is that 

 they are such excellent food for poultry; 

 and if poultry could be allowed to run 

 around the house they would thin them out 

 to a great extent. 



There is only one other drawback that I 

 think of just now, and that is the Floi'ida 

 mosquitoes. I am glad to say, however, that 

 there have been very few of them here this 

 winter. In fact, I have never been troubled 

 any winter with the mosquitoes in our 

 neighborhood. Mrs. Root says, however, 

 that a mosquito will find her if they do not 

 seem to find anybody else; but by keeping 

 our doors and windows carefully screened 

 it is seldom that a mosquito gets inside 

 the house. There is, however, something 

 else along that line that I find exceedingly 

 annoying — the little bits of gnats, almost 

 invisible, or what I suppose are sometimes 

 called sandflies. If you have any especial 

 work that you are very much interested in 

 lliat is worrying you and making you nerv- 

 ous, it seems as if these gnats take especial 

 pains to get in their work at just that time, 

 and make life almost unbearable. For in- 

 stance, if you are at work at the automobile, 

 and something puzzles you, and you are in a 

 great hurry ; also suppose that your hands 

 are' so smeared with black grease that you 

 can not touch your face or nose or ears, or 

 any part of your clothing; suppose, also, 

 that you are getting " sweaty under the col- 

 lar," then just at these times it seems as if 

 they took especial delight in taking advan- 

 tage of you. Let me say, however, that 

 they are seldom troublesome unless it is 

 about sundown and at the close of day. I 

 have known them also to be very annoying 

 at certain times early in the morning when 

 we have nmggy rainy weather. Sometimes, 

 when I find it time to gather my egg's, and 

 am a little late about it, these jDests seem 

 almost unbearable; and if it were not for 

 that precious remedy that I have several 

 limes mentioned, and wliich has also been 

 mentioned in our government bulletins, the 

 " oil of citronella," I don't know how I 

 could get along. We have two little bottles 

 of it, one in the cupboard and one out in 

 our tool-house. These ounce bottles, bottle 

 and all, cost only ten cents, so it is not a 

 very expensive matter to have plenty of the 

 oil of citronella close by. I simply take out 

 the cork, press the mouth of the bottle on 

 the palm of my hand, put it back, and put 

 in the eork. Rub the palms of the two 

 hands togethei', then take a rub around your 

 neck, over your eyes, and on your forehead. 



