The Monitor., 1891-05-01
IsOUsEwIvEs' PESTS.

| @"al0 tHo utd9 u summer OeiOre watching
| for moths. Artless young housewives look
| askance at the bare thought of bugs in
their newly built home, but if they stop to
| consider the subject they must admit that
visitors are at any time liable to bring in
| with eirclothiag a guileless moth, which,
with good health aud industry, can hatch
hundreds Of its kind in week and ruin
everything of an animal texture with
which it's Larvae or grubs comes in contact,
therefore the need for serious watcbfulness
and nowledge Of the subject becomes
apparent.
The quacks and preventive manu-
facturers have always reaped a rich har-
vest through the ignorance of people re-
garding the moth and its habits. Folks
have bundled up their woolens and packed
them away III their chests full of tarboline,
or earboliue, or cedarline, or camphorline,
aud actually believed that they would be
safe until fall They have wrapped up
hundreds of moth eggs which eventually
hatch the grubs. These odors will never
kill moth Or destroy its life germs.
1t is discouragiDg when housewife
shakes out her clothes and puts them into
a camphor trunk and keeps them there all
summer to find that in the fall they are
| fairly riddled, but tie trouble has been
she watched only for moths, when the
moth is not at all destructive. IL is the
worm that she should have been on the
| lookout for, which hatches out of the egg.
and as the egg is hardly pcrceptible to tue
naked eye, a mere white speck like the point
of pin, the danger is passed over unseen
| Until recently The utmost confusion and
| ignorance mas prevailed regarding the nom
enclature of the moth species, but it il now
a clearly defined fact that there are three
distinct species of wool destroying moths
common in this country all of which are OF
European origin.
| The eommonest house moth is light
brown and distinguished by spots. They
| begin to appear late in April and may oc-
casionally be seen fitting about as late as
| August. Their eggs are laid in dark cor
ners, crevices of the walls, cracks in the
floor or deep in the folds of garments, ap-
parently choosing by instinct the least
conspicuous places. The moth lays from
| Is to 140 eggs at time. From these eggs
| hatch, in period OF from three to seven
days, the white soft body lary@ or worms,
all OF which begin immediately to make a
case for themselves from the fragments of
cloth upon which they feed. The case is
in the shape Of hollow roll, from thirty
second to an eighth of an inch long.
| We have all noticed these rolls on
fabrics and frequently We have crushed
them, supposing that We have thus pre-
| vented ali damage, when the very exist
enee of the cylinder shows taat the grub
has already fed. The worm reaches its
full growth in thirty-six days and theu
crawling into some yet more protected
spot, remains torpid during the winter
| within its case.
l, is in the thirty-six day period, from
the time the eggs are laid to the time that
the orm or grub reaches it's full siz-, that
| the damage is done, aud it is fortunate
that all of the eggs that are laid do not
Latch-in fact, bnt small proportion ever
| find life.
| It raust be apparent that it is quite diff
cult to kill the enthusiastically small eggs
by reason of their almost imperceptible
| diminutiyeness and difficult also TO eradi-
cats the moth by reason of its secretive
habits. 4 Denzine spray is sure death, but
there are many objections to its use and
danger from its indlmmable characteristic,
if the ordinary throat spray, which can De
bought for trife. is filed with benzine
and the vapor thrown into crevices against
moth or eggs it will destroy them, bnt DO
light should be brought into room thus
| treated until alter it has been thoroughly
aired and the odor dssipated.
After thorough airing of wooden fab
ric--for the purpose of driving out any
concealed moth (for moth abhors lighD
and after time has been given 10 the devel-
opment oil any concealed egg. you may be
reasonably sure that theie is nothing
harmful on tie fabric; then it is as safe
done up in a paper parcel as it would be il
| saturated and buried beneath all the anti
moth remedies in existence.
Camphor, tobacco, naphthaline and
other strong odorants arc only partially
| repell llent to the flying moth and have no
effect at all upon the eggs or the worm,
| which is the destroying element. The
| benzine spray is the least Objectionable
agent we know of. It may be used very
safely upon carpeting, but the utmost care
should be exercised in using it on fabrics
| of delicate character.
| One should not confuse the moth with
the carpet beetle. Frequently house
keepers discover their carpets eaten and
they attribute it to moths. Indeed, the
| carpet beetle is frequently called the
Buffalo moth The perfect beetle is three
sixteenths OF an ZACH long and when dis
| tuibed it draws in its legs and feigns death.
| 1t is white, black and scarlet, the scarlet
being confined TO a strip down the middle
of the back. 1t begins to appear in the
fall and soon the species pair off and the
I H. f.a