PESTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD. 
239 
PESTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD.* 
Since the days of Gilbert White much more interest has been felt by people 
in general respecting the natural objects around them, and many books have been 
devoted to popular natural history. There is no need to go very far afield, and 
•Mr. Butler has given us here a series of articles (reprinted from Knowledge), on 
the commonest of the numerous ants, wasps, moths, cockroaches, crickets, flies, 
gnats, bugs, &c., which are (or may) be found in any house in town or country. 
Mr. Butler quotes Gilbert White sometimes, as, for instance, as regards the 
chirping of the field-cricket ; but since his time, the increase of cultivation has 
rendered the field-cricket a really scarce insect in England, and probably few 
observers are likely to have the pleasure of hearing it, unless they visit the Con- 
tinent, where it is still common, and sometimes destructive. Mr. Butler thinks 
that the house-cricket is likewise disappearing before its silent and more objection- 
able relative, the cockroach. 
Most of the insects which infest our houses are importations from abroad ; 
among others, the cockroach, the house-ant, and the bed-bug. The author 
devotes considerable space to the last-named insect, and is inclined to think that 
no poison is instilled into the wound. This is a doubtful point ; and we may 
mention that when we have been unfortunate enough to fall in the way of the 
insect, we have found that the subsequent swelling and inflammation were much 
reduced if not entirely prevented by slightly scarifying and squeezing the punctured 
part. 
Gnats and mosquitoes are now recognised by entomologists as identical, and 
though less offensive insects than bugs, are probably far more annoying when 
numerous. But there are many species, some more virulent than others ; and 
the same species probably differs much in virulence in different seasons or under 
different circumstances. We are fortunately seldom much exposed to the attacks 
of gnats in England, and, as Mr. Butler remarks : 
“ In the days when every house had its water-butt, and when stagnant ponds 
abounded on every side, often in close proximity to human dwellings, the conditions 
were so much the more favourable for the multiplication of gnats, and wherever 
such conditions now obtain, the insects are still likely to be both numerous and 
troublesome. But the extensive abolition of the water-butt, the introduction of 
closed and indoor cisterns, and the better drainage of the land, have all tended 
to throw hindrances in the way of the Culicida, and have helped to reduce their 
numbers in our own country, whatever may be the case elsewhere. There is 
evidence enough of this in literature. Enormous swarms of gnats, of one kind or 
another, seem formerly to have been a not unusual experience, though such a thing 
now scarcely ever occurs here.” 
It is not always in hot countries that the swarms of gnats or mosquitoes are 
troublesome. All travellers describe Lapland as terribly infested with them ; 
while the hero of the Esthonian epic, the Kalevipoeg, had the utmost difficulty in 
forcing his way through the swarms which infested the cavern he was traversing 
on his way to Hades. 
Mr. Butler describes very clearly the structure and habits of the insects which 
he discusses. Here and there we think a little further explanation might be 
desirable, as, for instance, when describing the leg of a cockroach as typical of 
that of insects in general, he might have noted that the trochanter is some- 
times double, as in the sawflies and some other families of Hymenoptera. 
The earwig is one of those insects to which our author has paid particular 
attention, and he gives very elaborate directions for expanding the beautiful wing 
of the insect, which is seldom seen unfolded in a state of nature. Probably the 
insect flies about at night, if at all. The following paragraph respecting the 
earwig, though its substance is frequently quoted, may find a place here : — 
“The earwig is one of those insects whose metamorphosis is incomplete, like 
the cockroach and cricket. The eggs are little, oval, yellow things ; they may 
sometimes be found under stones, lic. De Geer has left an account of a mother 
* Our Household bisects. An account of the insect-pests found in dwelling- 
houses, by Edward A. Butler, B.A., B.Sc. (London: Longman, 8vo, pp. vi., 
344, plates and woodcuts. Price 6s. ) 
