Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-29

pally in The fact that carpets are less used
in European countries, waxed floors being
more common, with rugs which are fre-
quently beaten. Under these conditions
the insect has not the same opportunity to
breed undisturbed that it has under our
closely-tacked carpets, which are removed
only at the semi-annual or annual house.
cleaning.
There is no easily applied and perfectly
efficacious remedy for this pest, and it can
be eradicated from household only by the
exercise of the greatest care and patience
and good deal of manual labor 1t does
its worst work in carpets, but will feed upon
all woolen goods and furs 1t has no par
ticular seasons, but breeds promiscuously
throughout the year, one generation over
tapping the other, so that all stages may be
found at almost any time. There is, there
fore, no particular season at which remedial
work can best be done, and the regular
housecleaning time, whenever that may be,
will answer as we'll as another.
Benzlne and Hot Soap Suds.
All carpets when taken up should be
thoroughly beaten and then sprayed with
benzine and allowed to remain in the sun
until the odor is thoroughly dissipated
The floors should be sprayed with benzine
and then washed with hot soap suds. All
cracks in base-boards and wainscoting
should also be sprayed, and closets particu-
larly should be thoroughly overhauled and
cleaned in the same way. If the floors
have not been carefully laid, and the cracks
are wide, these should be filled up with
wax or with plaster of paris in semi-fuid
condition, so as leave no harboring places
for the insect in any stage. Tarred roofing
paper Is good material to cover floors with
before the carpets are relaid
Another verv similar pest has been at
tracing considerable attention of late. 1t
has so far received no name. 1t is a black
beetle, about twice as long rs the Buffalo
carpet beetle, but more slender in proper
tion. Its larva is also more slender and
has not the enlarged forequarters. The
hair upon the body of the larva is brown,
but 1t is not so erect as in the larva of the
other form. 1t scientific name is Attagenus
piceus, and it may be called the black car
pet beetle. This insect has done some little
damage in furniture warehouses in WASH
lngton and l have received it from Penn
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 1t
works in very similar manner to the fore
going species and may be treated in the
same way. ~.
The Insects That Attack Cloth.
OF true clothes moths we have three i'm
portant species. All three are of European
origin, and all are now found almost all
over the world. They may be readily dis
by their methods of work. The |
common species, the larva of which makes
a case about itself in which it works, is |
called tinea pellionella. The form which |
makes a silken gallery along the cloth or
fur upon which it is feeding is called tInea |
while the third species makes |
neither a case nor a gallery, but transforms
within a cocoon made by webbing together |
with silk bits of cloth or fur or feathers |
This last is known as tineola biselliella
In the latitude of Washington and fur
ther south tineoIa biselliellais is the common
est species 1t feeds upon WOODEN clothing of |
all kinds, furs and feathers, and 1 have
known it to ruin a large stock of camel's |
hair brushes. 1t spins u certain amount of
silk wherever it goes, and in the Southern
States it has two annual generations, the
moths appearing twice year. The moth,
shown at figure 2, is of q uniform delicate
straw color. The commonest species at the
North is tinea pellionella Fig. 3), which is
readily distinguished from the last by the fact
that the moth has dark spots upon its wings,
while the wings themselves are of darker
general color. They make their first ap-
pearance in MAY, and occasionally fly as
late as August The females are busy all
this time searching for places in which to
ay their eggs They fly preferably at