198 THE BED-BUG. 
tant from the “twin cities,’’ they should have numerous 
broods every few weeks. With plenty of food and a warm 
temperature, they multiply rapidly; and if things are favor- 
able it requires only eleven weeks for the bug to undergo its 
transformation from egg to adult. Only the adult insects 
hibernate or are able to withstand severe cold. It is not 
necessary to describe this insect in detail, as the illustration 
shows well the structure of this vellowish-brown parasite. 
The disagreeable ‘“‘bed-buggy’’ odor is produced in minute 
glands which are situated in the adult bug on the under side 
of the body, and in the young one on the back of the thorax. 
The peculiar and penetrating odor of these parasites is, to 
many persons, even worse than their bites. Those who have 
been forced to sleep in a room which had not been occupied 
for weeks, and in a bed alive with hungry bed-bugs, know 
how interesting these parasites can make it, and how active 
they become as soon as the light is extinguished. Like 
harpies they attack the would-be sleeper and their bites pro- 
duce the sensation of being stung with hot needles; soon the 
whole body is in a fever, and big swellings appear wherever 
a bug has inserted his beak. If a light is suddenly ignited, 
the bugs run away as quickly as they can to their hiding- 
places. A glance at the ceiling of the occupied rooms will re- 
veal many bugs, which have crawled there with the intention 
of dropping down upon the sleeper. Thoughalways hungry 
and ready to imbibe blood bed-bugs can also exist for a long 
time, even for a year, without any food. Prof. Leunis kept 
a female bed-bug in anempty paper-box for six months; when 
the box was opened not only the living female was found, 
but she was surrounded by numerous young bugs, which, 
like the mother, were white and transparent as glass. 
We have a large nyumber of remedies against this insect. 
Cleanliness is, of course, the best preventive. Yet with all 
care bed-bugs can and will enter houses, because they are so 
readily carried with trunks, etc. from infested places, and if 
they once find a home they are, on account of their form, 
which is well adapted for hiding, and their capacity for fast- 
ing, not readily driven away. The free use of benzine, or of 
kerosene, sprayed with a hand-atomizer into all suspected 
