INSECTS AND WAR 15 



and placed the bed in the centre of the room, 

 the bugs will crawl up the wall, walk along the 

 ceiling and drop on to the bed and on to you. 

 Anyhow, whether this be so or not, there is no 

 doubt that these insects have a certain success 

 in the struggle for life, and only the most sys- 

 tematic and rigorous measures are capable of 

 ridding a dwelling of their presence. 



The eggs of the bed-bug are pearly white, 

 oval objects, perhaps I mm. in length. At one 

 end there is a small cap surrounded by a pro- 

 jecting rim, and it is by pushing off this cap, 

 and through the orifice thus opened, that the 

 young bug makes its way into the outer world 

 after an incubation period of a week or ten days. 

 There is no metamorphosis no caterpillar and 

 no chrysalis stages. The young hatch out 

 miniatures in structure of their parents, but in 

 colour they are yellowish-white and nearly 

 transparent. The young feed readily, and 

 feeding takes place between each moult and 

 the moults are five in number, before the adult 

 imago emerges. This it does about the eleventh 

 or twelfth week after hatching. These time- 

 limits depend, however, upon the temperature 

 after hatching, and the rate of growth depends 



