The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1880-09-30
atseful aud Curious.
MOSQUITOES.

With the rest of the world, your writer has
suffered greatly this and other years from those
| unsuitable summer pests, mosquitoesi but now
out of all agony, he can calmly gather up the
| shreds of experience, and jot down few facts
| that may help some poor mortal to weather
| Through the season until divine Nature rids Us
1 of our tormentors.
There is a remedy even for these ills and it is
quite probable that hundreds of your readers
| now have il in their house, though ignorant of
all its uses and the relief that is lying inst at
| their hands.
| The Pyrethrum roseum, or persian Camomile,-
is the powdered leaf Of harmless flower growing
| in Caucasian Asia in great prOfusion, where for
centuries, il has been used to rid the natives of
unwelssme guests from the insect world. 1t can
be purchased of almost any reliable druggist at
about seventy cents per pound, prepared for use.
With finely powdered dnst made from these
| flowers the mosquito, the house-fy, the wicked
flea, and the disgusting cimeX lectularius, may
all be promptly put to flight or calmly murdered
"a murder comforting on the human heart a joy
too deep for words; for certainly it is joy 70 sit
| as do now, at my writing-tsble this he's July
| night, watching the expiring agonies VI insects
and rarely feel a retributive sting Ia warn enc
OF their presence.
In order to ENJOY this yesgsfaL delicious sport
| ii is only necessary to heap mp into . little
one teaspoonful of the blessed drug pyFethrum
touch it with lighted match, and watch the
thin, blue line Of smoke as il rises TO the ceiling
and is waited through the air, changing the busy
drone Of insect life % o weak wall of insect woe
Pretty soon down they come plump onto the
| table and over your paper, spin on their tiny
| backs, and then sheath their lanects, curl up
their hair-like legs, and interest one more.
Up stairs our little ones sleep unmolested
| though there are thousands of mosquitoes in the
room; the pests art sick unto death, and cling
sadly to the walls too feeble to think Of tapping
| the rich, warm blood that CLOVIS in ruddy little
| limbs just below; the fume of the pyrethrun has
settled their business; and while it LINGERIE in the
room outsiders are unwilling to make an entry,
though the windows are raised and the lattiees
only half closed.
Gauze bars were long since banished from our
beds; indeed, we have not used them for nearly
| seven years They hot, stuffy things at best
| and one must be sadly driven to attempt to sleep
| under such a cover; then, as we all know, the
| mosquito always finds his way through, mat
ter how carefully one may tuck mp its folds
about the couch.
Smoke from the Persian camomile, or its dusty
powder, we have found most effcacious, and
Your readers will bless me when once they try it,
| The purity of the drug must be assured This
can readily be testeds 10 ssust have bright buff
color, be light, readily burned, and give pleas
ant tea-lIke fragrance; one pinch should kill
/ dozen flies, confined in bottle, at once: where
it fails of these properties it has been adulterated
In common use in larger breezy rooms
where. from great dilution, it fails to tell, il
nevertheless produces on insect life, through It's
volatiized essentil oil or resin, undoubted na,f-
sea, vertigo, respiratory spasm, and paralysis.
1t acts upon them through the minute s@airaeles,
the breathing tubes, that stud the ssfrface of
their little bodies and form the delicate network
of veins in their tiny wings.
To human beings it is, so far as CON ascertain,
entirely innoxious and not dssagssssbfe. That
we-a family of eight persons infants and adults
have lived for several weeks in an atmosphere
of pyrethrum dust and smoke combined, during
this present summer. b sufficient proof of my
| statement.
To the skeptie recommend an interesting
experiment: Puff the pyrethrum into close,