510  Insects  Destructive  to  Books.         I  '^''V- 
(   November,  1911. 
after,  upon  looking  at  the  contents  of  one  of  the  drawers,  I  dis- 
covered a  specimen  of  a  large  species  of  CerambycidcE  lying  on  the 
bottom  and  wondered  where  it  came  from.  After  searching  on  the 
outside  and  finding  no  opening,  I  pulled  the  drawer  entirely  out 
and  discovered  that  the  insect  had  emerged  from  the  board  used 
in  making  the  side  of  the  drawer,  showing  that  while  the  case 
remained  in  a  dry  location,  the  life  remained  dormant,  going  on 
with  its  life  cycle  when  the  proper  conditions  were  given. 
Seeds  stored  in  a  dry  location  for  quite  long  periods  have  been 
known  to  produce  plants  when  placed  in  the  soil,  and  anyone  familiar 
with  bacteriology  knows  the  greati  vitality  of  these  forms,  invisible 
to  the  naked  eye.  The  smaller  forms  also  have  bodies  more  capable 
of  withstanding  supposed  remedies  than  the  larger  insects.  Take 
one  hundred  roaches  and  the  same  number  of  red  ants,  pour  boiling 
water  on  them,  count  the  number  of  survivors  of  each  kind,  and 
you  will  find  that  all  or  mostly  all  oi  the  roaches  will  have  been 
killed,  while  a  large  proportion  of  the  ants  are  still  alive ;  an 
interesting  line  of  experimentation  for  economic  entomologists. 
Rciiiedies. — T  have  received  letters  from  almost  every  country 
of  the  world  suggesting  remedies,  some  claiming  success,  but  the 
majority  acknowdedg-ing  defeat ;  in  many  cases  what  was  proclaimed 
to  be  a  specific  remedy  by  one  writer  was  declared  to  be  a  failure 
by  others. 
Even  books,  treated  with  the  strongest  poisons,  failed  to  give 
the  desired  results,  but  on  the  contrary  the  remedies  seemed  to 
give  the  insects  that  they  were  supposed  to  kill  a  new  lease  of  life. 
In  the  case  of  experiments  conducted  by  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Standards.*  and  also  by  myself,  the  roaches  (the  insects  experi- 
mented with)  produced  their  young  as  though  nothing  unusual  was 
taking  place.  The  roach,  although  said  to  have  a  wonderful  in- 
stinct, really  has  less  than  the  smaller  forms  of  insect  life.  A 
famous  remedy  for  destroying  roaches  is  made  of  a  combination 
of  sulphur  and  sugar,  the  sulphur  causing  a  luminosity  when  the 
bait  is  placed  in  the  dark.  The  roach  is  attracted  by  the  gXom 
that  deadens  its  instinct  which  would  otherwise  warn  it  against 
the  poison,  and  it  eats  the  bait ;  but  the  little  ant's  instinct,  not  being 
*  Memoranda  relative  to  binding  of  publications  for  distribution  to  state 
and  territorial  libraries  and  designated  depositories. — United  States  Congress, 
Washington,  1908. 
