and caunot be safely used where children play upon the carpet, lest 

 thoy might get some of the poisoned portions in their mouths and thus 

 be poisoned. 



The larvie of the Buffalo beetles appear to be attracted to the bright 

 rod figures of a carpet more than to any other color, and some people 

 have found it very useful to spread pieces of carpeting in which red 

 was the prevailing color, on the bare floors of the closets, and then 

 take up and shake these pieces every few days, and kill the larvae 

 found under them. It might be well to wet these pieces of carpet 

 with the solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol, to poison the lar- 

 V£e as soon as they attack it. 



It has been recommended to spread wet cloths along the edge 

 of an infested carpet, and to pass a hot flatiron over them. If this be 

 properly and frequently done, the steam will be forced down through 

 the carpet and will kill the larvae. Naphthaline and gasoline have 

 been recommended for the destruction of the carpet beetles, but they 

 are so volatile, and the danger of explosion which might cause fire, so 

 great that insurance companies will not give permission to use them. 



This insect was named by Linneus more than one hundred and thir- 

 ty years ago, and he stated that the adult insect was found feeding 

 upon Scro2Jhularia, probably in the flowei's, for they are known to 

 feed on many different kinds of flowers, and are frequently brought 

 into houses in them. 



The insect destroys woolen fabrics only while in the larva stage, 

 and when it is ready to transform into the pupa stage, it is nearly a 

 quarter of an inch in length, and covered with coarse brown hairs 

 which are arranged somewhat in tufts on the head and along the sides, 

 while at the posterior ends, they are extended into a tail-like appen- 

 dage. (Fig. 1, a.) 



Late in the autumn the larva transforms to a pupa, c, which, how- 

 ever, is retained within the skin of the larva until its transformations 

 are completed, and the perfect beetle emerges through a rent along 

 the middle of the back as shown in Fig. b. 



The perfect beetle, d, is ovate and moderately convex. The head 

 is black with a few orange red scales around the eyes and above the 

 mouth. The antennee are black, eleven-jointed, terminated by a 

 broadly oval three-jointed club, which is as long as all the preced- 

 ing joints united. The thorax is black, with the sides and base more 

 or less covered with white and orange scales. The wing-covers are 

 black, but the suture along the back is broadly red, with three cqui- 



