The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-04-26
SHORT STUDY ON MOTHS
Names and Manners OF the
Little Insect Annoying
to Househo1ders.
HOW ONE MAY GET RID OF THEM,
Pure Air and Sunshine a Better
Specific Than All the Much
Vaunted Remedies The
Danger in Benzinc.
HOW ONE NAY GET RID OF THEM,


await the heat of the Summer before
watching for moths. Artless young
housewives look askance at the bare
thought of bugs in their newly built
home, but If they stop to squarely con
slider the subject, they must admit th at
visitors are at any time liable to bring in
with their clothing a guileless moth.
which, with good health and industry,
can hatch hundreds of its kind in week.
and ruin everything of an animal tex
ture with which its larv@ or grubs come
in contact; therefore, the need for serious
watchfnlness and knowledge OF the sub
ject becomes apparent
One Immediately protests. "But have
never watched specially for moths, and
everything in the way OF clothing and
fabrics in my home has not been ruined )"
''True, but your immunity from depre-
dalton has been good luck, nothing more.
The moth lays its eggs in dark places and
the grub which Is Matched moves slowly,
aud its feeding spots are usually within
foot or SO of It's place Of birth If by good
luck its place of birth is away from a tex
tile fabric. the texture will not be hurt; il
near, it is sure destruction.
IGNORANCE THE FIELD OF QUACKs.
The quacks and preventive" manufac-
turers nave always reaped q rich harvest
through the ignorance of people regard
ing the moth aud its habits. Folks have
bundled up their woolens aud packed
them away in their chests of tarboline, or
earboline or cedarline, or camphor-
line, and 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. To be sure,
moth will not voluntarily seek nesting
place where the odor exists. but If boxed
up with an odor it cannot escape from, it
simply proceeds to lay its eggs in the
atmosphere, which becomes a second
nature to the grub when Matched
Anything saturated with arsenic or
creosote, or even salt, or impregnated
with sulphur. the moth or worm will not
touch, but the use Of these articles is
dangerous to the colorings Of fine tex
lures. 1t is discouraging, indeed. 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 the
trouble has been, she watched only for
moths, when the moth is not at all de-
structive.
1t is the worm she should have been on
the lookout for. which is Matched from
the egg, and as the egg is hardly percept-
like the point of a pin, it is often passed
unseen. Until recently, the utmost con-
fusion and ignorance prevailed regarding
the nomenclature of the moth species,
but it is now 8 clearly defined fact that
there are three distinct species of wool
destroying moths common in this coun-
try, all of which are of European origin.
NAMES OF CLOTH DEsTRoYERS.
To Re scientifically correct we should
term them the Tinea pellionelIa, Linn;
the Tlnea tapetzella, Linn, and the
Tincola biselliella, Hummel.
The moth lays from eighteen to 140eggs
at q time. From these eggs hatch, in
period from three to seven days. the
white soft body Larvae or worms, all of
which begin Immediately to make case
for themselves from the fragments of the
cloth upon which they feed.
The case is in the shape of hollow roll,
from a thirty second TO an eighth of an
inch long. We have all noticed these
.rollsn on fabrics and frequently we have
crushed them. supposing that we have
thus prevented all damage, when the
very existence of the cylinder shows that
the grub has already fed. As the worms
grow, they enlarge this case by adding
material which they get by feeding The
worm reaches its full growth in thirty
six days and then. crawling into some yet
more protected spot, remains torpid dur
ing the winter within its case, which by
this time is thickened and fastened at
either end and the full-sized cocoon.
The transformation OF moth takes place
within the case during the following
spring. Such is the life round of the
species. The worm feeds on wooden fab
rics, curled hair, hair cloth, furs, feathers
or anything of that character which may
possess an animal deposit, for within the
cellular tissues of hair, there is the same
nutriment which one finds on smaller
scale within bone.
Il is the thirty-sx day period, from the
time that the eggs are laid to the time
that the worm or grub reaches the full
size that the damage is done, and it is
fortunate that all of the eggs that are
laid do not hatch--in fact, but q small
proportion ever find lite.
IT PREFERS THE sunny SOUTH"
The second species constructs its CO
coon mainly from fragrants of the ma
terial upon which it has been feeding.
spinning certain amount OF silk. how
ever, wherever it goes, leaving the trace
which one sometimes finds on wooden
fabrics; this species Is most common
from Washington southwark. The parent
moth is of a dark straw color, and has
none of the spots on it that you see on the
rinea Psllionella-
The moth OF the Tinea tapetzella, the
third Species is readily distinguished
from all others by the front wings. which
/ are DdCA ltOl1 buC DdoC W blC bOaJy btAtA
white beyond, the white portion being
sometimes crowded with dark gray.
The habits of THESE species are much the
same, with the exception that the larva
or worm of the last named Is most de-
strucaye, using for its cocoon cylinder
pieces of the cloth itself on which it is
feeding.
1t must be now apparent to the careful
reader that it is quite difficult to kill the
enthusiastically small eggs by reason of
their almost imperceptibie diminutiveness
and difficult also TO eradicate the moth by
reason of its secretive habits. A benzine
spray is sure death, but there are many
objections to its use and danger from its
infiammable character; still, liz the ordi-
nary throat spray, which can be bought
for a trifle, is filled with benzine and the
vapor thrown into crevices against moth
or eggs. 1t viii destroy them. but no light
should be brought into room hus treated
until after IL has been thoroughly aired
and the odor disstpated.
THOROUGH AIRING THE SPECIFIC
After thorough airing Of wooden fab
ric--for the purpose of driving out any
concealed moth (for moth abhors light),
and after time has been given to the de-
velopments of any concealed egg. You
NAV be reasonab lv sure that there Is moth
ing harmful on the fabric; then IL Is safe
done up in a paper parcel as IL would be
IL saturated and buried beneath all the
antimoth remedies in existence.
Camphor, tobacco, naphtaline and
other strong odorants are only partially
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