Fleas and Plague 159 



brownish cocoons in which they pass the pupal 

 stage, issuing a few days later as the adult fleas. 



It will at once appear, then, that it is important 

 to provide the cats and dogs with sleeping-places 

 that can be kept clean. If they have a mat or 

 blanket to sleep on this can be taken up and 

 shaken frequently and the dust swept up and 

 burned. In this way many of the eggs or larvae 

 may be destroyed. Very often the dust under a 

 carpet that has not been taken up and dusted for 

 some time will be found to be harboring a mul- 

 titude of fleas or their larvae. In such cases a 

 thorough cleaning of the carpet and the floors will 

 bring relief. Houses that are unused for some time 

 during the summer months are often found to be 

 overrun with fleas in the fall, for the fleas have had 

 an unmolested opportunity to breed and multiply. 

 Such rooms of course require a thorough cleaning 

 or it is sometimes possible to kill the fleas by a lib- 

 eral use of pyrethrum powder or benzine or to 

 fumigate. In this connection, Dr. Skinner's note 

 in the Journal of Economic Entomology is worth 

 repeating. 



"In the latter part of last May (1908) I moved into a 

 house that had not been previously occupied. No car- 

 pet was used and being summer only a few rugs were 

 placed on the floors. A part of the household consisted 



