572 INSECTS AT HOME. 



say how many were captured, but it is sufficient to mention 

 that they were counted, not by individuals, but by measure. 



Aboi;t a month afterwards, the process was repeated, for the 

 purpose of killing- those which had escaped on the first occasion, 

 and the young- larvae which might have been hatched since the 

 fumigation. Scarcely any survivors were discovered, and ever 

 afterwards the room was quite free from them. It appeared 

 that they had been introduced in a bedstead which had been 

 warranted free from all insects. 



It is said that spiders ai-e great enemies to Bugs, and that 

 they will destroy numbers of them if allowed to remain in the 

 infested rooms. 



Some years ago, I was very much perplexed, not to say 

 annoyed, by the occasional presence of these insects in my 

 dining-room, as well as in a bed-room immediately above it. 

 I found at last that they came from some nests of the common 

 house martin that were fixed just above the window. I got a 

 long ladder for the purpose of examining the nests, and found 

 their clay walls absolutely swarming with these insects. I tried 

 a few experiments on a small lump of clay which was tenanted 

 by them, and found that although they disliked the odour of 

 turpentine, and crawled out of their refuge when placed in a 

 tin box together with a piece of cotton- wool soaked in spirits of 

 turpentine, they were not killed by it after an imprisonment of 

 thirty-six hours, and rapidly recovered themselves when re- 

 stored to the fresh air. 



I was extremely sorry to disturb the martins, for I used much 

 to enjoy watching the pretty birds so close to my window. 

 But their parasites were so annoying that there was no alterna- 

 tive but to remove the nests and brush oil over the wall, so 

 that the clay would not adhere when the birds tried to erect new 

 nests in the same spot. Some entomologists think that these 

 insects are not the same species as the Acanthia lectularia. 

 Whether this be the case or not, they have the same unpleasant 

 habit of attacking human beings and the same abominable 

 odour, and must be extirpated ruthlessly. They will travel for 

 considerable distances from the nests in which they are hatched. 

 I have seen four or five of them creeping along a wall and 

 making their way to a window which was not only mucli below 

 tlie nestj but quite on the opposite side of the house. 



