CARPET BEETLE — SILVER FISH — CHEESE SKIPPER 357 



The Carpet Beetle, or Buffalo Moth {Anthrenus scrophularice L.) 



A small, hairy, oval larva, about one fourth of an inch long, feeds on 

 carpets, working from the under side, and usually following the line of 

 a crack in the floor. The adult is a beetle, thi-ee sixteenths of an inch in 



Fig. 562. — Work of the Car- 

 pet Beetle. Original. 



Fig. 563.— The Carpet Beetle. 

 Enlarged and natural size. 

 Original. 



length, dark in color, and irregularly mottled with white. The beetles 

 appear through the fall and winter. 



Where rugs are used, no damage is recorded as a rule. If carpets 

 are necessary, and infestation is in progress, it is essential to take up 

 the floor coverings, spray them with gasoline, and wash all cracks with 

 hot suds, following with gasoline. 



The Silver Fish {Lepisma saccharina L.) 



Substances containing sugar, starch, or sizing are sometimes injured 

 by a tiny, active, wingless insect of a silvery appearance, having very 

 long antennae and three long feelers at the hind end of the body. It 

 invariably runs quickly away when objects on which it is at work are 

 brought to the light. 



Pyrethrum dusted into places where it hides will kill them, or they 

 may be poisoned by dipping pieces of cardboard into a thick paste in 

 which has been mixed Paris green, and sUpping these into cracks where 

 they are abundant. 



