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

The appetite for starch which the silverfish shows should not be catered to by putting stored fabrics away in a starched condition. Preventive Measures. — Frequent examination of stored fabrics, dryness in trunks and any receptacles for stored fabrics. Remedies. — Insect powder. Carpet-beetles and Crickets Apparatus. — Insect powder, naphtha, turpentine, kerosene, tarred roofing paper, water, specimens of fabrics eaten by carpet-beetles, specimens of cloth eaten by crickets, atomizer or syringe, spring-bottom can, trap bated with sweet liquid for crickets, hot flatiron, cloths for steaming, pieces of carpet to illustrate steaming. Lesson VII Carpet-beetles Coleoptera — Dermestidae — Anthrenus Scrophulariae. — During the last twenty-five years great havoc has been caused in some parts of the United States by an insect pest, familiarly called ''bufEalo bug," or "buffalo moth." It is neither a bug nor a moth, but a beetle, and, like the moths, it is the larvse which eat carpets and other fabrics. It is said to have been called " buffalo beetle " when it was first found injuring carpets in the city of Buffalo, in 1872. It is found most frequently in the late spring, in the summer, and fall months, for cold or lack of food retards its development. It is, however, very persistent of life, and may exist for months in unoccupied houses, without food, except that furnished by the dusty lint and fluff which are never absent. Like the moth, it prefers wool, but will riddle silk, and often attacks books, either for the paste and glue used in their binding, or for the binding itself. The common species is a small beetle, nearly elliptical, or broadly oval in shape, covered on the back with minute scales which give it a black and white appearance. There are more or less distinct blotches of red caused by a stripe down the middle of the back, which widens in three places along its course. It plays "possum" when disturbed. The head is scarcely distinguishable from the body except by the short knobbed antennae. Each leg ends in a tiny hook. The metamorphosis is indirect. The larva is longer than the adult, with the plainly segmented body tapering towards the anal end. Each segment has a tuft of stiff brown hairs on each side, while on the back a larger tuft of longer hairs finishes the body at each end. The larva is very active, eats voraciously, and is usually found covered with the fuzz of the material upon which it is feeding. This fuzzy, hairy appearance might well gain for it its name of "buffalo." The larvae do not cling to the cloth as do the larvae of moths, and the eggs are always laid in dark places. Under favorable conditions the larva changes into the pupa quite rapidly. The adults are day -fliers, and as soon as the pupal skin is cast they try to leave the house to reach certain plants whose pollen is their favorite food. Scrophulariaceae and some Compositae are often chosen, but the white spiraeas are their especial delight. All specimens found upon such plants should be killed, for they will probably go into houses to lay their eggs.