DESTROYING INSECTS.' 39 



are exposed to continual importation of them upon clothes, instances 



packages, &c. When once they get into a house, although where care an* 

 r . " ' J ° cleanliness are 



the numbers may be kept under by cleanliness, frequently not sufficient 



taking down the bedsteads, and washing them with various remedies. 



kinds of poisonous washes; it is generally found that they 



cannot be eradicated. Their eggs or knits, or at least 



some of them resist the action of the poison, and after a 



time fresh swarms are produced, who Jive aad multiply, 



especially in Kot weather, in the apparently poisoned wood. 



Soon too they get into the wainscoat, skirting boards, or 



lath and plaster walls of the room, from whence they send 



forth fresh colonies as the former are destroyed. 



Six years ago last September I took my present dwelling Account of a 

 house. The walls were repaired and white-washed. The {^a 

 bedsteads, one excepted, were all new, and that one was 

 perfectly clean. Precautions were taken to prevent bugs 

 being introduced in any old boxes, &c. of the servant. 



Early in the spring all the bedsteads were, to my vexation 



and surprize, overrun with bugs — one in particular mus t 



have afforded habitation to several thousands. 



They were all taken down and washed in soap and water, Application of 

 J r 7 the usual re- 



the ends were dipped in boiling water and then in a hot de- medies. 



coction of the cucumis colocynthin of Linncen, or bitter 

 apple as it is commonly called. In about six weeks it was 

 necpssary to take them down again. They were now 

 washed in essential oil of turpentine, which kills this insect 

 almost instantly; but appears to have no effect on its nit, 

 and wholly evaporates in a few days. Therefore the joints 

 were well brushed with a strong solution of oxymuriate of 

 quicksilver, with which I hoped to render the wood 

 poisonous and uninhabitable to them. But I soon found 

 my hopes were vain. 



About this time I learned from a neighbour, that during 

 the time of a gentleman who had lived in the house above 

 twenty years, it had become overrun with this insect to a 

 degree that appeared incredible? and that, until his death, 

 he would not suffer his bedstead to be touched. The insects 

 were sometimes seen crawling even upon the walls of his 

 drawing room. After his decease millions were found 

 tipon his bed and chamber furniture. 



I need 



