The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-09-21
The MCroMIin, Ferlles.o

That horror of the true housewife,
bedbugs, is abroad in the land at this
season of the year, and the remedies
therefor are almost as numerous as the
''crowlin ferlies" themselves. Every
old, experienced housekeeper has some
favorite oxterminator, and the druggists
and grocers sell i'll smelling liquids cal
culated to destroy them, and al other
vermin. And while the various reme-
dies are being applied, the brains are
cudgeled to discover 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 n crevice or crack where,
years before, painter or paperer uu-
consciously entombed the tenacious little
life-for bedbugs possess remarkable
longevity, which seems to be a sort of
sub-curse attached to an unmitigated
evil. One very prolific "origin'' of bed
bugs is-perhaps it should be whispered
"a church sociable, where, as is usually
the case, wraps are laid aside in bed
rooms. And a room occupied by per-
son who has recently come from a dis
tance should be frequently looked after,
for cushioned car-seats and sleeping
cars are often infested, aud perhaps
some one else's bedbugs seem little
worse than "natives." Horse cars,
waiting-rooms, and even church pews,
harbor them, and in place haunted by
doves they are almost sure to be found.
In the Southern States they are also
parasites of bats, though whether this is
true at the North l am unable to say.
When they are once in q room no rest
should be taken until they are destroyed,
root and branch; and simply ''doctor-
ing" the bedstead does not suffice The
carpet should be taken up and well
shaken. the floor should be washed and
the cracks in it cleaned, the walls should
be brushed or wiped and every loose
edge of the wallpaper and every crew
ice in the mop-board should be carefully
examined, for bedbugs make their homes
soles of their feet. They may even be
found In window curtains and tassels,
and on the under sides of furniture, and
from these retreats they make their
nightly raids, returning by daylight.
A solution of corrosive sublimate in al
cohol, which, it should be remembered,
is as fatal to children as it is to insects,
applied to all lodging places, is an old
remedy, partially replaced by the safer
application of kerosene, benzine, tur-
pentine, whisky, and almost anything
with q pungent, disagreeable odor.
These can be applied by small syringe,
feather, or a brush. Kerosene and
turpentine retain their odor for time,
while benzine evaporates rapidly but
causes danger from its readiness 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 a varnish, which,
if it covers up q bug or the eggs, is sue
cessful. A strong solution of alum and
water is an excellent exterminator, and
has the advantage of being safe to ham
die and TO keep in the house. When a
bedstead is found to be full of the crea-
lures, it should be left out of doors for
several days and thoroughly scalded,
and then vanished, and every square
inch of the mattresses should be looked
at with solemn inexorableness, for the
consciousness of the presence of vermin
is fatal to all sincere aesthetic aspira-
tions.
But the ounce of prevention for all
these tribulations is very simple though
somewhat laborious. Once in two weeks
-or four weeks at the most-the mat
tresses should be taken from every bed
stead, which then should be thoroughly
brushed and washed with hot water
Stats, sockets, joints and every place
whore a bug could find lodgings. By
following this rule it is impossible for
bedbugs to become established, and this
knowledge will prove to be balm
which will even assauge the dread and
subsequent WEAKNESS of the work, not to
mention the satisfaction of having beds
free from all impurities and germs af
disease.-Springfeld (MGss.) Repu6li
cd7.