368 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



Possibly it is strange, but it is none the less true that 

 some people object to such flighty familiarity, and hastily 

 vacate the premises, or else energetically summon a braver 

 or more stolid companion to '' kill that horrid flying roach." 

 Many and msinj a time has the writer been thus summoned 

 to the rescue, and usually returned from the fray with the 

 triumphant exclamation, ''We have met the enemy, and 

 they are ours." Not always though ; sometimes the chase 

 is long, and finally unsuccessful. 



These flying roaches live more generally out of doors, 

 than do their big black brothers, but often manage to force 

 their way in-doors, especially if there is a bright light to 

 attract them ; like the June or harvest-bugs of the North, 

 they work their way into the house in spite of netted doors 

 and w^indows, and no one can tell how they do it. 



The perfumer, however, while found out of doors also, 

 in rotten wood or piles of trash, makes his home by prefer- 

 ence in the house, in dark closets and corners, and sallies 

 out at night on foraging expeditions. 



Meantime, during the day, he has a nice quiet luncheon 

 in the closet, if it happens to be one in which provisions 

 are carelessly left open, or in which clothes are hung. 



Just here is a point of which our new Florida house- 

 keeper should take heed, and perhaps some of the older 

 ones too, for we did not discover it ourself for several years, 

 and there may be some who have not yet done so. It is 

 this, that a great deal of the damage done to clothing while 

 hung up in dark closets, must be placed to the account of 

 these same roaches. 



Again and again we found clothing that was only usedi 

 occasionally, yet frequently taken out, shaken, and aired, 

 badly eaten here and there, sometimes the holes were small 

 and round, again, large and irregular. We wondered how 

 the moths found time to do it, when they were so often 



