Handbook of domestic science and household arts for use in elementary schools

With some persons the bite of the flea brings on swelling and intense itching. Both may be allayed with salt water. The annoyance is severe but short. Preventive Measures. — Care of the pet animals, washing and combing and general cleanness of their hair. Remedies. — Thorough cleaning of the infested room, absence of dust collections. Lessons IV and V Insects Injurious to Food Supplies Apparatus. — Borax, sulphur, molasses, chocolate, spices (clove, cinnamon, etc.) ; salt, plaster of Paris, water, proprietary remedies, a small mortar for grinding, spoons and dishes for mixing materials, spring-bottom can, materials stained with cockroach excrement, materials scented with the cockroach odor, fabrics or papers gnawed by cockroaches. Cockroaches Orthoptera — Blattidce — Periplaneta (orientalis, americana, and australasicej and Ectobia germanica. — It is not strange that with the many conveniences and luxuries of modern houses there have come also some nuisances and pests. Some houses are as warm in winter as in summer, and too often bad air is an accompaniment of this heat. Hot air and water pipes running under and between walls and floors make many warm, dark, snug lurking places for insects. Perhaps the most common and offensive, in city houses at least, are the different varieties of cockroaches. The roach family is one of the most ancient as well as the most numerous in the insect world. The moisture and warmth of the Carboniferous period especially favored the multiplication of all species, and similar conditions in the tropics to-day produce similar results. They have always infested ships, and are thus carried into all parts of the globe. Fortunately, however, for the housewife, most of the species live out-of-doors, feeding upon living vegetation. The common species in this country are known by different names which are often used interchangeably, the " water bug " of one section being the cockroaches of a second, or the "black beetles" of a third. There are two species easily distinguished by size and color. The black or very dark brown species is shiny and stout, the adult male with short, thin wings, the female nearly wingless ; the other species varies from chocolate to a very light brown marked with lighter spots or bands on the back, near the head, and at the bases of the wings or their remnants. In all species the eyes are insignificant, the antennae very long, the mouth parts suited to biting, and the legs to swift running or enormous leaps. They are more apt to trust to their legs than to their wings for safety. The segments of the abdomen overlap and may be greatly extended like an accordion, so that the body is rendered thin and flat, and capable of entering very small cracks. The metamorphosis is direct, the larva and pupa resembling the adult, only smaller and minus wings. All stages are harmful. All species are very active, scudding rapidly away from the light or any interference. The eggs are laid enclosed in an oval or bean-shaped capsule, with its surface marked into rings so that the whole resembles a row of small elliptical crackers placed face to face. This capsule is extruded from the abdomen of the mother, and is often carried by her, partly showing, for some time. All such capsules found should be burned.