140 HOUSEHOLD PESTS AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM 



that you may see which insects should be grouped to- 

 gether : 



Experiment. To classify the insects of the home according to the harm 



they do. 



Make a list of all the household insect pests you can find out about. 

 List these under the suggested headings according to the harm they do. 

 Possibly some one insect will need to be listed in more than one column. 



The house rat. David Lanz of the Department of 

 Agriculture calls the rat the worst mammalian pest 

 known to man. Not only do they do many million dollars' 

 damage to grain stored in barns but they kill many 

 young chicks and destroy a great number of eggs. They 

 have been estimated to do $200,000,000 damage in the 

 United States every year. Buildings are damaged, water 

 pipes gnawed, and buildings flooded. Many fires are caused 

 by rats gnawing off the insulation of electric wires and by 

 setting off matches which they have taken to their nests. 

 In addition to this, rats are responsible for killing millions 

 of people in India and elsewhere lately by carrying the 

 germs of the bubonic plague, the " Black Death " of the 

 Middle Ages. 



One of the practical projects a boy can work out is to lay 

 plans for the trapping of rats or killing them by means of 

 poison. One must remember that poisons are dangerous 

 to handle and that rats and mice are cunning, so that it 

 takes constant and careful work in order to finally rid the 



