^ THE COMMON BUG. 163 



How to clear beds of them Paradoxical bug. 



killed. Spiders are very fond of them, and often 

 seize them for food. 



Beds infested by bugs ought to be stripped 

 early in the year of all their furniture, which 

 should be washed, and, if linen, even boiled, or 

 if stuff, hot-pressed. The bedsteads should be 

 taken in pieces, and dusted, and washed with 

 spirits of wine, or turpentine, in all the joints 

 and crevices, for it is in these parts principally 

 that the females deposit their eggs. This done, 

 all the cavities should be well filled with the best 

 soft soap, mixed up with verdigrease and Scotch 

 snuff. On this composition the young will im- 

 mediately feed, after leaving the egg (if any 

 escape the cleansing) and will be destroyed, as 

 will also such of the old ones as happen to be 

 left. 



These creatures abound in all the hot climates, 

 from whence most of our merchant-vessels are 

 over- run with them. It is supposed that they 

 do not altogether lie torpid during the winter, 

 but that in the cold weather they require less nu- 

 triment, and therefore that they are not tempted 

 to come so often out of their retreats as they do 

 in the warmer seasons of the year. 



The paradoxical bug which was seen by Dr. 

 Sparman at the Cape of Good Hope, resembles, 

 in shape and colour, the fragment of a withered 

 leaf, with the edges turned up and eaten away, as 

 it were, by caterpillars, and at the same time alt 

 over beset with prickles. Nature, by this pecu- 



