Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-06-27
TWO HOUSEHOLD INSECTS.
The Bedbug and the Red Ant Consider
Scientifically and Historically.

TWO HOUSEHOLD INSECTS.
The Bedbug and the Red Ant Considered
Scientifically and Historically.
The bedbug (acanthia lectulac1a) has
found its way wherever man has pushed
and is too we'll known to need descrip
ton, says Good Housekee ping. Its odo1
and the effects of its bites are universally
known and the word 'bedbuggy" has en-.
tered our literature as descriptive of a
particular class of odors. The original
home of the pests is probably southern
Europe and the As1atic and African
countries around the eastern end of the
Mediterranean. It was introduced into
England at least as early 1903, and
doubt, ess reached Amarica shortly after
extensive settlement. Certain English
writers have endeavored to father the
pest on America, but there is strong evil
dence that it was known to Aristophanes,
Dioscorides, Pliny, and Aristotle.
The adult hug is we'll adapted from its
fiattened shape to entering narrow
crevices in the joints of bedsteads or
crrcks in the walls, or other convenient
places of concealment. In such places
the females lay their eggs. These eggs
are white, of an oval form, slightly mar
rowed at one end, and are terminated by
a cap which breaks off when the young
escape. The young bugs are whitish and
at first nearly transparent.
With plenty of food and even temper
allure the species will multiply with great
rapidity, while under contary conditions
reproduction may be greatly retarded.
Adult bugs have been known to remain
alive for more than year without a
single meal. 1t is this fasting capacity,
together with its form SO we'll adapted
for hiding. which renders it so difficult to
thoroughly disinfect an infested house.
Here again benzlne must be our strong
est weapon. Finely sprayed with hand
atomizer it will penetrate the minutest
cracks, and is sure death to the insec5 in
all its stages, including the egg. It is q
certain remedy and used thoroughly will
destroy every bug in house. Kerosene
is almost as good, and, is a little NOR
lasting in it's effects. Many preventative
have been advised, but none are perma
nent. One of the best formulas for
substance with which to paint the cracks
in bedstead or the wall is one ounce
corrosive suhlimate, half pint alcohol,
and one quarter pint pirits of turpentine.
The red ant is Lot wholly bad. 1t has
one redeeming trait-and that is that it
will (although perhaps under exceptional
condltions) destroy bedbugs. Has any
one ever known house overrun with red
ants IN which bedbugs were common at
the same timer think not. One of my
assistants, Mr.. Pergande, had an oppor-
tunity at Meridian, Miss, during the war,
of seeing an old building used as a
barracks and filled with bedbugs, invaded
by countless numbers of red ants. Several
ants would attack single full grown
bedbug, pull off its legs, and carry away
the helpless body. They penetrated the
closest cracks of the rough beds and
dragged out old and young bugs and
eggs. There is, then, some slight con-
ISOLATION in having the ants about ones
house, but with care cleanliness, especi-
ally at the north, there is no excuse for
the occurrence of either pest.
The "red ant" as this insect is almost
universally called, is another of the
household pests which we seem to eve to
the older civilization of Europe, and,
like other domestic pests, it has become
almost cosmopolitan. II has generally
been considered of North American or
igin and is looked upon as one of the few
American species that has become wide
spread i'll Europe.
Ordinarily in households this insect is
not a nuisance from the actual loss which
it causes by consuming food products,
but from it's inordinate faculty of getting
into things. 1t Is attracted by almost
everything in the house, from sugar to
shoe polish, and from bath sponges to
dead cockroaches.
A great number of remedies have been
proposed in the household columns of
various journals, but nearly all depend
upon the use of mixture of some sort
for trapping the ants and at best are slow
and tedious means of warfare. The best
of those with which have had any ex
perience consists in placing small bits of
sponge moistened with sweetened water
in the spots where the ants most do con-
gregate, collseting the sponges once a
day or SO, soaking them in hot water, and
then replacing them. Small bits of bread
and poisoned molasses or small vessels of
lard in which few drops of oxalic acid
have been put, have also been recon-
mended, as well as the free use of borax,
so often advised for reaches. The peo-
pie of the southern states suffer more
from the pests than we do at the north,
and Fioridan of experience &C. G. Gone,
of Crescent City, recommends mixture
of borax and sugar we'll mixed with boil
ing water and left here and there on bits
of broken crockery.