84 Circular No. 15, 



Sodium fluorid dusted freely about baseboards and other 

 frequented places can be made to destroy numbers of the in- 

 sects. 



The Oriental Roach (Blatta orient alis). This is a brown- 

 ish black roach somewhat larger than 'the Croton-bug, the fe- 

 male wingless, and the male with the wings shorter than the 

 body and terminating bluntly, as if obliquely cut off, tho 

 without angles. The male measures from about 0.80 to 0.88 

 inch in length, the folded wings reaching a short distance be- 

 yond the middle of the abdomen. Females are longer, measur- 

 ing from 0.80 to 1 inch in length. The oval egg case is about 

 0.40 by 0.24 by 0.18 inch, each valve with about 16 minute mar- 

 ginal prominences and 8 submarginal swellings. 



This insect sometimes becomes more numerous in dwellings 

 than the Croton-bug and can be equally annoying to the tidy 

 housekeeper. It is sometimes called the Black beetle, but it 

 is not a true beetle, its relationship being with crickets and 

 similar insects, instead, all belonging to the order Orthoptera. 



Its manner of life so far as the household is concerned is 

 the same as that of the Croton-bug. Tt feeds upon many differ- 

 ent foods and attacks at times the bindings of books and various 

 other substances useful to us and commonly kept about our 

 dwellings. The same treatment is to be recommended as for 

 the other insect, namely, poisoning, trapping, and. in extreme 

 cases, fumigating. 



The American Roach (Periplaneta americana). Both the 

 Croton-bug and the Oriental Roach have been introduced into 

 America from some other country, in all probability from some 

 tropical region, since they are sensitive to extreme cold and 

 suffer from it. The American species, the third of those here 

 dealt 'with, is a larger insect than either of the others and is 

 fully winged in both sexes. Tt measures from 1.32 to 1.68 

 inches in length to the tips of the folded wings, is dark reddish 

 brown in color, the shield-shaped plate (prothorax) just behind 

 the head being bordered somewhat irregularly with yellow. 

 This roa^h appears in our households less frequently than the 

 introduced species, yet may make more trouble when it get* 



