The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-07
A ROACH EXTERMINAT0R.


Housekeepers bothered by reaches and
water bugs-and what housekeeper is not
have now boon long sought; practical au-
tomato, readjusting insecticide; one that is
noiseless, thoroughly reliable, cool-headed
and self-possessed. A roach, be it under
STOOD while of pretentious portions, is not
nutritious, and no one, SO far as has been made
known has yet succeeded in preparing them
for table. The roach as an edible is failure,
and unless some means can be devised whereby
it may be given perpendicular thickness
greater than that of fne-comb, there can be
no encouragement for the hope that reaches
may ultimately come into the market on a
level with shrimps, their aqueous cousins.
This being the case, the presence of the
ubiquitous and business like roach and the
pale-faced water-worm, even though environed
by the best of restaurants, is not desired. In
serving the former gratuitously, it sometimes
happens that they get into the plate of the
wrong customer, one who is unaccustomed to
such things, and his surprise is SO complete
that not unfrequently he creates an unpleas-
ant disturbance to the evident distress Of all
concerned. To avoid these surprises, and
to escape the suspicion Of attempting to
serve reaches for raisins, restaurateurs have
been put to it to find some means Of getting
rid of them. The old plan Of shooting them
with Flabert rifle had to be abandoned, and
the single. while more deadly in its results.
was not at all equal to the determination Of
the pests. A New York experimenter has at
last solved the problem, and kitchens and
"queseens' may be easily rid of them. The
plan, in short, is to introduce two or three
well-developed toads, of about the bulk of a
good-sized wet dish-rag. More might be
employed, but it is thought that they would
when stepped on. Naturally enough, the
women of the household will instinctively OBJ
ject to toads in the house. But this preiu-
dice will soon disappear. A toad, unlike
bulldog will never bite the baby, and the
danger of baby ever swallowing the toad may
be obviated by employing toads of size larger
than babys mouth, so that no uneasiness
need be felt on this account. To avoid the need
less killing of the toads by stepping upon them,
those employed about the kitchen should go
barefoot By this means the natural cold
ness of the toad will instantly impart chill
ing sensation to the foot, and the woman who
owns the foot will bump her head against the
ceiling while the toad hops off about his bust
ness unscathed. A little experience with
toads, however, will enable women to improve
on this and to restrain such exhibitions of ex-
uberant vitality. Instead of bound and
scream, she will simply lift the foot from the
half-pressed toad and put it down elsewhere,
in fact anywhere most convenient. It is not
claimed for the toad that he is intelligent;
but while trife taciturn, it may be, he
thoroughly understands himself. No toad
was ever known to sing or play on the piano
during business hours, which of itself is no
mean recommendation. AS soon as one room
is cleared of reaches the toad may be easily
transferred to another, or even lent to neigh
Dor, and in cases Of sickness may be utilized
as cold compress. In fact there are many
ways in which the toad will make himself
useful, and we see no reason why he should
not speedily make his way into good society.