524  Making  Money  out  of  "Bugs."  {^ufe?!^ 
Such  are  the  plaints  with  which  the  druggist  is  continually  hav- 
ing to  deal.  Often,  I  fear,  his  answers  are  based  upon  popular  ideas 
that  have  but  little  or  no  scientific  value  and  which  are,  in  many 
cases,  absolutely  worthless.  The  subject  is  one  which  is  important 
enough  for  a  more  careful  consideration.  The  pharmacist  who 
knows  what  he  is  talking  about,  in  the  matter  of  insecticides,  can 
surely  build  up  a  trade  in  that  line  which  will  give  him  handsome 
returns.  He  can  acquire  the  necessary  information  with  little  effort 
and  practically  no  cost.  "Uncle  Sam"  will  furnish  it  through  the 
Department  of  Agriculture.2 
Every  live  pharmacist  should  have  his  name  on  the  list  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  to  receive  its  monthly  list  of  publica- 
tions. For  the  price  of  a  post  card,  he  can  have  information  regard- 
ing not  only  insecticides,  but  also  regarding  diseases  of 'plants,  cattle, 
domestic  fowl  and  the  remedies  for  such  diseases,  and  regarding 
drug  plants,  wild  and  cultivated,  and  a  host  of  other  subjects  of 
which  he  never  dreamed.  The  man  with  a  country  store  would,  of 
course,  profit  most  largely  by  this  information.  I  have  noticed, 
however,  that  when  a  countryman  drops  into  the  store  of  a  city 
druggist  for  something  not  kept  by  his  rural  confrere,  his  interest 
is  very  easily  gained  if  the  city  man  can  show  him  that  he  is  in- 
terested in  the  problems  that  concern  him  and  can  intelligently  offer 
suggestions.  A  country  customer,  so  won,  advertises  such  a  store 
to  his  neighbors,  and  soon  there  is  built  up  a  clientele  that  could  be 
had  in  no  other  way. 
The  use  of  insecticides,  as  usually  considered,  may  be  grouped 
under  two  heads,  for  the  destruction  of  household  vermin  and  for 
the  destruction  of  insects  infesting  plants.  This  paper  will  be  con- 
fined to  the  consideration  of  such  insecticides  as  are  used  for  the 
destruction  of  household  vermin.  In  this  part  of  the  country  there 
are  but  three  kinds  of  insects  which  give  much  trouble  in  the  house- 
hold^— bedbugs,  roaches  and  moths. 
When  used  against  bedbugs : 
Hydrocarbon  oils,  as  gasoline  and  kerosene,  and  preparations 
consisting  largely  of  the  same,  are  100  per  cent,  efficient.3 
Kerosene  proves  the  better  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it 
2  This  paper  is  based  upon  Bulletins  Nos.  701  and  771  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  together  with  a  few  observations  of  the  writer. 
3  Wherever  "efficient"  is  used  in  this  paper,  it  is  to  be  understood  to 
mean  that  such  a  percentage  of  the  insect's  used  in  a  test  were  destro3'ed. 
