ENTOMOLOGY 331 



druggists are modifications of this prescription. It can be spread 

 on pantry shelves or wherever the roaches are usually found ; but it 

 is more readily eaten from pieces of slightly moistened bread. 



Phosphorous paste is also a good destroyer, and this reaches 

 the oriental roaches more readily. In any case moisture is needed 

 as an attraction, especially to the large species. The croton bugs are 

 more apt to run in dry places and to feed on dry foods. The phos- 

 phorous paste may be bought ready made, or may be prepared by 

 mixing from 1 per cent to 2 per cent with sweetened flour paste. 

 Spread this on bits of soft or moist bread, and for the oriental roaches 

 place among the edges of the baseboards or on a damp dish rag. 

 A dish rag or damp towel, or even a damp mop, on a kitchen floor, 

 will attract every roach in the room, and they will reach the bait 

 there sooner than anywhere else. 



A variety of roach traps are sold, all built on the principle of 

 making it easy to get in and hard to get out. All of these are more 

 or less effective and are useful to reduce the number of the pests in 

 connection with the measures already recommended. 



A very simple trap is a large dish pan, the deeper the better, 

 with a foul moist dish rag in it. Set up sticks of lath or card board 

 on an easy slant from the floor to dish, so that there will be no diffi- 

 culty in getting to the edge of the pan and over the dish cloth. 

 First thing in the morning pour boiling water over the rag to kill 

 the roaches hiding under or in it. The fight should be continuous 

 and persistent, and by all the suggested means until not a specimen 

 remains. After that keep watch for new introductions and kill off 

 every specimen seen. 



A very simple Australian method is recorded by Mr. Marlatt 

 in Circular 51, second series of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. He mixes plaster of Paris, one part, and flour, three or 

 four parts, in a saucer and places it where the roaches abound, with 

 another flat plate near by containing pure water, both supplied with 

 several bridges to give easy access, and one or two thin boards float- 

 ing on the water, touching the margin. The insects readily eat the 

 mixture, become thirsty and drink, when the plaster sets and clogs 

 the intestines. The insects disappear in a few weeks, the bodies no 

 doubt being eaten by the survivors. This method needs little atten- 

 tion after the mixture has been once prepared, and requires only 

 keeping up the water-supply. 



Emphasis should be placed on the point that the best time to 

 make the campaign is in the early part of the season, before the 

 egg capsules are developed, and every female with an egg capsule 

 should be ruthlessly destroyed so as to prevent increase. 



Ants. There are three if not four species of ants that occasion- 

 ally get into the houses; all of them are small, and one red and one 

 black species are very small indeed. In a general way they infest 

 kitchens and pantries and get into foods of almost any kind, man- 

 ifesting a special fondness for sugar and other sweet things. 



The medium sized red form is the true house species, making 

 its nests behind the plaster, wainscoting or baseboards, behind man- 



