Sec. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 243 



for once acts sensibly in discarding glazed cards, using instead Bristol board, 

 more pliant, less cumbersome, and really more delicate. 



We have found that bugs can not stand hot alum water. Take two pounds 

 of alum, bruise and reduce nearly to powder, and dissolve in three quarts 

 of boiling water, letting it remain in a warm place till the alum is dissolved. 

 The alum water is to be applied hot, by means of a brush, to every joint and 

 crevice. Brush the crevices in the floor of the skirting-board, if thev are 

 suspected places. Whitewash the ceiling, put in plenty of alum, and there 

 will l)e an end to their dropping from thence. 



To kill moths in carpets, spread a wet cloth on the carpet, and iron with a 

 hut llat-iron round the edges and places where you suspect them to be. Do 

 this a few times in the course of the summer, and you will save your carpet 

 from the moths. 



Silk-tcorms have been induced to work in France by electricity. M. 

 Sauvageon reports to the Academy his experience in the matter. Finding 

 the little things torpid and unwilling to work, the idea struck bim to stir 

 tlicni u]) by electricity. The results, as he gives them, are really marvelous, 

 lie took fil'ty-thrce worms at random from among thousands belonging to a 

 neighbor, put them every day on a sheet-iron plate, through which a current 

 of electricity \vas passed, kept them each time as long as they could stand it, 

 and now has fiftytiirce beautiful cocoons, an amount which his neighbors 

 will not obtain, to all a]ipearances, from several thousand ungalvanized 

 M'orms. If these results may be relied on, he has made a very valuable 

 discovery. 



208. Molli Protrctors. — Camp/ior is one of the most useful moth protectors 

 about the household. A trunk full of furs, with an ounce of camj)hor gum 

 scattered through them, will be safe from moths. Furs or woolens jiaeked 

 in a chest niiide of camphor-wood or cedar will generally be safe. Some 

 housewives pack in a linen sheet, or bag of close texture. Others use to- 

 bacco. Others keep their furs or woolens in drawers or trunks where they 

 will be often exposed to tlie light, and where they can frecpicntly take them 

 out to the air and sun, and beat them, which will efiectually prevent the 

 ravages of the moth. A very good preventive is to carefully kill the miller 

 that makes the worm which is so destructive to woolens and furs. It is not 

 a hard matter to do so in a house not already overrun with them. Tliey 

 may be attracted to a light blaze ; and they may be caught in plates M-ith a 

 little sweetened water and vinegar; or a piece of an oM blanket may bo 

 used as a trap; or they all may be caught and destroyed by hand, by de- 

 voting half an hour to the work each evening, in the proper season. 



'2<)(». Anis in the House. — These troublesome pests may be overeonte by 

 various remedies. Perhaps one of the be>t things for the red ants is to mi.\ 

 a few grains of corrosive sublimate in a spoonful of lard, with a little sugar, 

 and then draw rough strings of cotton or woolen yarn througli the mixture, 

 and lay them in the cracks where the ants harbor, or in the corners of closet 

 shelves. They may also be poisoned with cobalt, pulverized line and mi.xed 



