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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



employed for cleansing bedsteads where this treatment seems 

 preferable. Corrosive sublimate is frequently used, though a deadly 

 poison and should be employed with great caution. The daily 

 inspection and the destruction of bugs found on the bed and 

 bedding soon results in eliminating the pest un 1 ess the building 

 affords comparatively inaccessible retreats, as, for example, a very 

 defective floor. 



A room badly infested by this pest might well be thoroughly 

 fumigated with brimstone; 2 pounds of sulfur are advised for each 

 thousand cubic feet of space, the treatment being continued at 

 least 24 hours if possible. The sulfur candles now manufactured 

 are excellent for this purpose. A more effective though much 

 more dangerous method is the employment of hydrocyanic acid 

 gas, directions for the use of which are given on page 42. This 

 latter is especially serviceable where entire buildings are badly 

 infested. 



It may be comforting to know that the bedbug has active 

 enemies in the little red ant and also cockroaches. Unfortunately 

 these insects are serious nuisances in the household and hardly 

 more welcome than the pest under consideration. 



*■" Fig. 11 Masked bedbug 

 hunter cr kissing bug. from 

 above, about twice natural 

 size. (After Howard, U. S. 

 Dep't Agric. Div. Ent. Bui. 

 22. n. s. 1900) 



Bedbug hunter 



This species 1 occasionally occurs about 

 houses and with one or more allies was 

 widely noticed by newspapers in 1898 

 under the name of kissing bug. This 

 brownish or black insect is about I of 

 an inch long and has somewhat the same 

 shape as the malodorous squash bug of 

 the garden. It is beneficial, since it preys 

 upon insects. The grayish, sprawly legged 

 young are unusually interesting on account 

 of their being covered with particles of lint. 

 This gives them a nondescript appearance 

 and undoubtedly is of service in enabling 

 them to creep up unobserved upon their 

 prey. 



[. 'O p s i c o e t u s personatus Linn. 



