CLOTHES-MOTHS. 495 



chiefly extracted) are hatched in fifteen days, and the little 

 whitish caterpillars or moth-worms proceeding therefrom im- 

 mediately begin to gnaw the substances within their reach, 

 and cover themselves with the fragments, shaping them into 

 little hollow rolls and lining them with silk. They pass 

 the summer within these rolls, some carrying them about 

 on their backs as they move along, and others fastening 

 them to the substance they are eating; and they enlarge 

 them from time to time by adding portions to the two open 

 extremities, and by gores set into the sides, which they 

 slit open for this purpose. Concealed within their movable 

 cases, or in their lint-covered burrows, they carry on the 

 work of destruction through the summer ; but in the au- 

 tumn they leave off eating, make fast their habitations, and 

 remain at rest and seemingly torpid through the winter. 

 Early in the spring they change to chrysalids within their 

 cases, and in about twenty days afterwards are transformed 

 to winged moths, and come forth, and fly about in the 

 evening, till they have paired and are ready to lay their 

 eggs. They then contrive to slip through cracks into dark 

 closets, chests, and drawers, under the edges of carpets, in 

 the folds of curtains and of garments hanging up, and into 

 various other places, where they immediately lay the founda- 

 tion for a new colony of destructive moth-worms. 



Early in June the prudent housekeeper will take care 

 to beat up their quarters and put them to flight, or to 

 disturb them so as to defeat their designs and destroy their 

 eggs and young. With this view wardrobes, closets, draw- 

 ers, and chests will be laid open, and emptied of their con- 

 tents, and all woollen garments, and bedding, furs, feathers, 

 carpets, curtains, and the like, will be removed and exposed 

 to the air, and to the heat of the sun, for several hours 

 together, and will not be put back in their places without 

 a thorough brushing, beating, or shaking. By these means, 

 the moths and their eggs will be dislodged and destroyed. 

 In old houses, that are much infested by moths, the cracks 



