390 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



the whole interior timbers of old houses in Brussels and 

 replacing them with new ones. On investigation he found 

 that the timbers, especially the floor joists, had been 

 destroyed by the Anobium beetles "and that every year 

 the same process, arising from the same cause, is called 

 for in several of the old houses of the city," thus entailing 

 an enormous expense. 



This small beetle also bears a good deal of interest 

 because of its role as the "death-watch." The ticking 

 noise so often heard in old houses, and which is supposed 

 to portend the death of some person, is probably due, 

 for the most part, to this beetle and its close relative, 

 Anobium domesticum. The ticking noise on a still night 

 is amazingly clear, distinct, and penetrating. It is small 

 wonder that the watcher by the quiet bedside of a sick 

 patient in the silent hours of the night should be filled 

 with a portentous dread of dire happenings. The ticking 

 is caused by the insect striking its head or jaws against 

 the walls of its burrow in the wood. The ticking is 

 maintained for a few seconds, followed by an interval 

 of quiet, after which it is again resumed, thus producing 

 a regular succession of tappings. Perhaps the regularity 

 and monotony of the tappings add to their mysterious- 

 ness. Swift discerned the real significance of these pe- 

 culiar tappings and prescribed a method of dispelling the 

 omen when he wrote : 



A kettle of scalding hot water ejected 

 Infallibly cures the timber affected ; 

 The omen is broken, the danger is over, 

 The maggot will die, and the sick will recover. 



It is held that the ticking is really a love call of one sex 

 for the other. Those investigators who have observed 



