Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-14
COME In THE SPRING.
A Great Mistake to Wait Until Sum-
mer to Watch for Moths.
SOME VERY DANGEROUS REMEDIES
They Are Nearly Innocuous Except, Per-
haps, to the Articles.
THE HAVOC OF THE CARPET BEETLE

THE HAVOC OF THE CARPET BEETLE
The greatest mistake folks make is to
await the heat of summer before watching
for moths, SAYS writer.in The Upholsterer.
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 that Wis
itors are at any time liable TO bring in with
their clothing guileless moth, which, with
good health and industry, can hatch hun
dreds of its kind in week, and ruin every
thing of an animal texture with which its
larvs or grubs come in contact; therefore,
the need for serious watchfulness and a
knowledge of the subject 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 depreciation
has been good luck-nothing more The moth
lays its eggs in dark places, and the grub
which is hatched moves slowly and its feed
ing spots are usually within foot or so of
its place of birth. If by good luck its place
of birth is away from textile fabric, the
texture will not be hurt; if near, it is sure
destruction"
The quacks and preventive" manufact-
urers have always reaped a rich harvest
through the ignorance Of people regarding
the moth and its habits. Folks have bum
died up their woollens and packed them
away in their chests full of tarboline or
carboline or cedarline or camphorline, and
actually believed that they would be safe
until fall. They have wrapped up hum
dreds of moth eggs which eventually hatch
the grubs. These odors will never kill
moth or destroy its life germs. To be sure,
a moth will not voluntarily seek nesting
place where the odor exists, but if boxed up
with an odor it cannot escape from, it SIM
ply proceeds to lay its eggs in the atmos-
phere, which becomes second nature to
the grub when hatched.
A Rather Dangerous Remedy.
Anything saturated with arsenic, or creo-
sote. or even salt, or impregnated with
ulphur, the moth or worm will not touch,
but the use of these articles is dangerous to
the colorings of fine textures. 1t is discour-
aging, indeed, when housewife shakes out
her clothes and puts them into 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
destructive. 1t is the worm that she should
have been on the lookout for, which matches
out of the egg, and as the egg is hardly per-
ceptible to the naked eye, mere white speok
like the point Of pin. the danger is passed
over unseen. Until recently, the utmost con-
fusion and ignorance has prevailed regard
ing the nomenclature of the moth species,
but it is 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. To be scientifically
correct we should term them the Tinea pei
lionella, Linn; the Tinea tapetEella, Linn,
and the Tineola biselliella, Hummel.
The commonest species are light brown
and distinguished by the spots shown in the
illustration. They begin to appear late in
April and may occasionally be seen fitting
about as late as August. They pair off and
the female then searches for suitable places
for the deposition of her eggs, working her
way into dark corners, crevlces of the walls,
cracks in the floor or deep in the folds OF
garments, apparently choosing by in
stiuct the least conspicuous places.
The moth lays from 18 to 40 eggs
at time. From these eggs hatch. in a
period from three to seven days, the white
soft body larvse or worms, all of which be-
selves from the fragments of the cloth upon
which they feed. The case is in the shape
of hollow roll, a 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
prevented all damage, when the very exist
ence of the cylinder shows that the grub has
already fed. AS the worms grow they en-
large this case by adding material which
they get by feeding.
The Transformation Comes in Spring.
The worm reaches Its full growth in 36
days and then, crawling into some yet more
protected spot remains torpid during the
winter within its case, which by this time is
thickened and fastened at either end and is the
fulI-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 woolen
fabrics, curled hair, hair-cloth, furs, feathers
or anything of that character which may
possess an animal deposit, for within the
cellula tissues of. hair, there is the same
nutriment which one finds on smaller scale
within bone. 1t is the Sc 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 a small portion ever find life.
The second species constructs its cocoon
mainly from fragments of the material upon
which it has been feeding. spinning a GER
tain amount OF silk, however, wherever it
goes, eaying the trace which one sometimes
finds on woollen fabrics; this species is most
common from Washington southwark. The
parent moth is of dark straw color, and
has none of the spots OIL it that you see on
the tinea pellionella. The moth OF the tinea
tapetzella, the third species, is readily dis
tinguished from all others by the front
wings, which are black from the base to the
body and 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 destructive, using for its cocoon cyl
inder pieces of cloth itself on which it is
feeding. 1t must be now apparent to the
careful reader that it is quite difficult to kill
the infniteslmally small eggs by reason of
their almost inperceptible diminutiveness
and difficult also to eradicate the moth by
reason OF its secretive habits. A 'benzine
spray is sure death, but there are many OBJ
jections to its use and danger from its in
fiammable. character; still, if the ordinary
throat spray, which can be bought for tri-
f1e, is filled with benzine and the vapor
thrown into crevices against moth or eggs,
it will destroy them, but no light should be
brought into room thus treated. until after
it has been thoroughly aired and the odor
dissipated.
Least Objectionable Destroying Agent.
After thorough airing OF wooden fabric
Co he nF