The American Midland Naturalist 



PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 

 OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA 



VOL. VI. JANUARY, 1920. NO. 7 



Household Insects and their Remedies. i^^^^,, 



BY B. W. SCHEIB. 



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Preface. 



Household insects are demanding more attention today than 

 ever before. In the careful research for the causes of human diseases 

 it has been found that many of these pests are carriers of bacteria 

 and disease. In addition to this, they are very annoying and also 

 do hundreds of dollars worth of damage to clothes, household 

 furnishings and supplies. During the past years, the author of 

 this essay has had a great many inquiries for exterminating 

 them. In nearly every case the housewives readily recognized the 

 insects but were not acquainted with the best methods of control. 

 Thus a scientific technical description of each insect was thought 

 to be unnecessary and, in the descriptions given, the writer has 

 tried to use such language that would be readily understood by 

 the average housewife. Usually the housewife is not interested in the 

 insects further than to eradicate the pests. With this in view, the 

 writer has tried to set forth the simplest and most economical 

 remedies for the destruction of some of the most common household 

 insects. The author does not claim to have originated all of these 

 remedies but they have been carefully gleaned from various sources. 

 Nearly all of these remedies have' been tried by the writer or on 

 recommendation to his friends and have been found to be most 

 satisfactory. 



The House Fly. 



The most common and most widely distributed household 

 pest is the common house fly {Muscu domestica). This insect is 

 now attracting wide attention as a carrier of disease. It has been 

 known to carry typhoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera, cholera 

 infantum and dysentery and no doubt a great many other diseases. 



