Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-06-28
HlisfeIIarrtons.
The ssCrowlin' rerlies."
How THEY GET INTO HOUSES AND HOW
THEY MAY BE ExTERMISATED.

That horror OF the true housewife, bed
bugs, is abroad in the land at this season
Of the year, and the remedies therefore
are almost as numerous as Me ..crowlin'
ferlies'' themselves. Every old expert
enced housekeeper has some favorite ex-
. terminator, and the druggists and gro
GERS sell ill-smelling liquids. calculated
tn destroy them and all other vermin.
And while the various remedies are being
applied; the brains are cudgeled to dis
cover where the pests come from.
There are many WAYS in which bed
bugs are brought into a house. to say
nothing of unlocked for resurrections
from some old trunk, or long unused bed.
or from crevice or crack where. years
before. painter or paperer unconsciously
entombed the tenacious little iife-for bed
bugs possess remarkable longevity. which
seems to be sort OF sub-curse attached
To an upmitigated evil. One very prolific
'sorigin'' OF bed bugs is-perhaps it should
be whispered--a church sociable, where.
as is usually the case, wraps are laid
aside In bedrooms. And room occu-
pied by person who has recently come
from a distance, should be frequently
looked after, for cushioned car-seats. and
sleeping cars are often infested, and per-
haps someone else's bed-bugs seem
4 IixtLs worse than ina ives Horse
cars. waiting-rooms and even church pews
harbor them, and in a place haunted by
doves they are almost sure to be found.
In the southern States they are also para
sites Of bats, though whether this is true
at the North am unable to say.
When they are once in room no rest
should be taken until they are destroyed.
root and branch and simply ''doctoring''
the bedstead does not suffice. The carpet
should be taken up and well shaken, the
fiosr should be washed and the cracks in
it cleaned. the walls should be brushed or
wiped and every loose edge of the wall
paper and every crevice in the mop-board
should be carefully examined. for bed
bugs make their homes wherever they
can find rest fer the soles of their feet.
They may even be found in window cur
iains and tassels. and on the under sides
of furniture, and from these retreats they
make their nightly raids returning by day
light, A solution Of corrosive sublimate
in alcohol, which, it should be remember
ed. is as fatal to children as it is to insects,
applied to all lodging places, is an old
remedy. partially replaced by the safer
applications of kerosene, benzine, turpen-
tine. whiskey. and almost anything with
pungent, disagreeable odor. These can
be applied by small syringe, feather or
n brush Kerosene or turpentine retain their
odor for time, while benzine evaporates
rapidly but causes danger from its readi-
mess TO take fire. Quicksilver and the
whites of eggs beaten together, another
old compound, is just as good with the
quicksilver left out, as it only makes u
varnish. which. If it covers up a bug or
the eggs is successful. A strong solution
of alum and water is an excellent exter-
minator. and has the advantage of being
safe TO handle and to keep in the house
When a bedstead is found to be full of the
creatures, It should be left out of doors for
several days and thoroughly sralded and
then vanished, and every square inch of
the mattresses should be looked at with
a solemn inexorableness. for the con-
seriousness of the presence of vermin is
fatal to all sincere aesthetic aspirations.
But the ounce of prevention for all these
tribulatons is very simple though some
what laborious. Once in two weeks-or
four weeks at the most-the mattresses
should he taken from every bedstead
which should then be thoroughly brushed
and washed with hot water,-slats, sock
cts, joints and every place where a bug
could find lodgings. BY following this
rule it is impossible for bed-bugs to be-
come established. and this knowledge will
prove to be a balm which will even as
suage the dread and subsequent weari-
ness of the work, not to mention the sat
istac,ion of having beds free from all inn
purities and germs of disease.