FLIES AND OTHER HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 35 



bility of insects entering through an unsuspected crevice. Before 

 replacing the contents of the vault, wood, papers or other materials 

 hkely to be infested should be most carefully examined and, if 

 necessary, thoroughly heated or repeatedly fumigated with some 

 gas. Great care should be exercised to prevent the reinfestation 

 of any such place. It is even more difficult to control this pest 

 in buildings^ since if it becomes abundant nothing can be done 

 aside from mstalling brick, stone or concrete foundations. This 

 form of construction is especially advisable in warmer sections 

 of the country. Where books, papers and exposed woodwork 

 only are infested, thorough and protracted fumigation with 

 hydrocyanic acid gas, described on page 48, may be advisable. 



Crickets 



These black, chirping, nocturnal insects^ occasionally make their 

 way into houses and for the most part are welcome. Sometimes 

 they may cause serious injury. Dr Lintner records a case where 

 a suit of clothes, just from the tailor, was completely ruined in a 

 night by the common black field cricket^ which had entered an 

 open window in some numbers. Such injury is exceptional. 

 Crickets can be destroyed where necessary by the use of ground-up 

 carrots or potatoes to which a liberal amount of arsenic has been 

 added. They may also be caught by taking advantage of their 

 liking for liquids and placing low vessels containing beer or other 

 fluids about their haunts. 



FOOD PESTS 



House ants 



There are several species of ants likely to occur in houses. These 

 little insects are not specially destructive nor obnoxious aside 

 from their faculty of getting into everything. 



The little red ant^ is particularly troublesome, since its small 

 size, it being only about 1/16 of an inch long, enables it to enter 

 almost any receptacle not hermetically sealed. Furthermore, this 

 little pest is very prolific and occasionally literally overruns 

 buildings to the serious discomfort of the inhabitants. This tiny 

 species is perhaps the most common and the most abhorred of all, 

 owing to the difficulty of eradicating it. 



^Gryllus domesticus Limn, and others. 



^Gryllus luctuosus Serv. 



"Monomorium pharaonis L;nn. , i ' 



