HOUSEHOLD AND CAMP INSECTS 39 



tures of from 60° to 65° F. may live for 136 days, and after meals 

 for 9 months. ^"^ Unfed nymphs have been kept alive in a bottle for 

 75 days.°^ These pests are also known to feed to a certain extent 

 upon mice and some domestic animals, and this habit may fre- 

 quently explain the abundance of the bugs in uninhabited dwellings. 



This insect, with its nocturnal habits, may easily be an important 

 factor in the dissemination of disease. It has been shown capable 

 of transmitting bubonic plague and South American trypanoso- 

 myasis, and Nuttall has succeeded in transmitting European relaps- 

 ing fever from mouse to mouse. It is claimed, and not without some 

 foundation, that oriental sore, tuberculosis and even syphilis may 

 be carried by this pest. 



Control. The elimination of cracks and crevices, loose wall 

 paper, wooden bedsteads and similar hiding places is a great assist- 

 ance in checking this pest. In the older types of dwellings cracks 

 and crevices should be stopped so far as possible and the joints 

 of old-fashioned bedsteads treated liberally with kerosene, benzine 

 or similar oils. Hot water can also be employed. A 5 per cent 

 solution of carboHc acid killed bugs in 10 minutes. °^ Medical 

 turpentine with its own volume of soap suds is very effective. ^^ 



Superheating, where practicable, is very effective. A temperature 

 of 120 to 130° F. for 15 minutes is fatal to the bedbug and presum- 

 ably its eggs. A maximum temperature in the building of 160° F. 

 continued for several hours results in the destruction of all the 

 pests. This is frequently possible with ordinary heating apparatus, 

 especially if it can be supplemented by using oil or gas heaters in 

 a few of the rooms. 



Fumigation with sulphur or hydrocyanic acid gas, where con- 

 ditions permit, is very effective. 



Bedbug Hunter 



This species ^ 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 

 three-fourths of an inch long and has somewhat the same shape as 

 the malodorous squash bug of the garden. It is beneficial, since it 



96 Bacot. Bull. Ent. Res. London, 5 :iii-i7. 1914. 



97 Riley & Johannsen. Med. Ent., p. 89. 1915. 



98 Blacklock. Ann. Trop. Med. Parasit., 6:415-28. 1912. 



99 Housain. Tnd. Med. Gaz., Feb. 1913, p. 84. 

 ^Opsicoetus personatus Linn. 



