102 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



same results may' be secured by gumming strips of paper over the 

 joints of the boxes. 



Upholstering of furniture, etc., that cannot be protected in this 

 way while not in use during the summer may be protected by spraying 

 with naphtha or benzine, every six or eight weeks, if precautions against 

 danger from fire be taken with these inflammable liquids. In some 

 of the regular storage warehouses, where such goods may be sent, 

 cold storage is now used to protect goods against moths; sometimes 

 in such warehouses periodic fumigation with sulphur dioxide or other 

 gases is also practised, which has the additional effect of killing all 

 rodent and other pests that may be present. In modern houses with 

 well-fitted fly-screens clothes moths are, of course, to a large extent, 

 excluded. 



Other Household Pests. Roaches usually accompany filth, though 

 they sometimes are found in cracks under wash boards, in cupboards 

 and in other places where food stuffs are kept. They may usually 

 be exterminated by a vigorous cleaning of cracks and corners and the 

 use of borax or some regular roach powder that is sprinkled about in 

 the places where they are seen; powdered sodium fluoride is said to 

 be effective if used in this way. 



Bedbugs, the horror of the good housekeeper, are sometimes a pest 

 in the most carefully kept house in the city, since they apparently 

 come through cracks in the walls from adjoining houses which may not 

 be so carefully looked after. The use of modern iron bedsteads elimi- 

 nates largely the harboring places for this disgusting pest, and in old 

 fashioned wooden beds they may be killed by spraying the cracks with 

 benzine, or similar fluids, care being taken to avoid all lights while 

 using these liquids. In cases of bad infestations with these or other 

 household insects, fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas is most effect- 

 ive, but owing to the extreme deadliness of this gas it should only 

 be used according to rigid directions such as are furnished by the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Fleas occasionally, for some reason, multiply very rapidly and in- 

 fest dwellings beyond the point of endurance. In single rooms they 

 may sometimes be exterminated by. filling the air and covering the 

 floors with pyrethrum insect powder and closing the rooms for some 

 hours; the powder may then be swept up and burnt. In cellars and 



