CHAPTER X 



THEIR RELATION TO THE HOUSEHOLD 



SINCE man has enjoyed the shelter of a dwelling, how- 

 ever simple, he has had in it something in the nature of 

 furniture and bedding, and he has usually felt the need of 

 storing, in time of plenty, supplies that might be drawn 

 upon in seasons of want. And stored products of all kinds 

 have ever been attractive to those insects that feed upon 

 dead animal or vegetable matter ; not necessarily decay- 

 ing or decomposing matter, but simply that which is 

 without active life and ready to return to its original con- 

 stituents, whether by way of the human alimentary canal 

 or in any other manner. Stored seeds are not dead in the 

 strict sense of that term; but it can stand here for that 

 inactive condition of vegetable life in which it is not ca- 

 pable by any process of growth of outrunning or opposing 

 the attacks of such creatures as attempt to feed upon it. 



There is no one species of insect that is confined to 

 human habitations. All are species that also occur under 

 normal outdoor conditions, and that could continue even 

 though every trace of mankind were removed from the 

 face of the earth; but as to some of them the struggle 

 would then be very seriously intensified. 



We might arrange the species that associate with 

 man so closely, in the order of the manner in which 

 they affect us, and that would be the better method 

 were we intent only on a treatise dealing with house- 

 hold pests; but I have preferred to follow the general 

 scheme of dealing with the orders and giving those 

 general habits that have induced certain of their mem- 

 bers to frequent man's neighborhood. 



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