The age-herald., 1897-09-26
SUCH 4 PLAGUE IF BUGS AiV Visitation That Alarms and
 AnnOyS New Orleans. DRIVE PEOPLE OFF STREETS Varied Discomfort Caused Snperstitous Fears The Plague the Result of the Slaugh-
 ter of the Birds-Feyer Bugs.

| NeW OTl6AUS, sept. EU.-liiC Du6o+ AA- | bugsl The bugs! is now the universal | cry in New Orleans 1r seems strange that a city facing the threat of yellow fever epidemic should be worried by so
 small "a matter as bugs, but to the ma | jcc3ty of the people the latter are far
 more troublesome than the disease and the annoyance is more immediate. They can read about the fever in the papers, but the bugs they can see everywhere They came so suddenly and mysterious ly uhlalt they have raised quite a scare among tha supeTstitnous and ignorant people as though they are the 1ozusts which swept down upon lhe people of
 Egypt as one of the seven plagu5s. New Orleans is strong entomolagically. It Is
 famous for its bugs. Its mosquitoes of
 various kinds are among the largest and
 moat voracious in ths Unien, ard isl elsctric light bug (the giant water bsstle)
 is the fiercest and ugnsst of insec.s. smli
 actually has feathers on its legs. The new visitant is a stranger, and its com ing in such quantities and at such time has disturbed ,,he nerves of the su- pers tilious. The very name given it by the negroes, ''the yellow fever bug" caused a thrill of anxiety. The bugs are so-called because they arrived the day the figst case of yellow fever, tha- of young Gelpe, was announced and have | remained here ever since. They witi | be a new feature of the legendary lore | of the fsvsr, of which we had so much In | the past Thus whom the winds in the summer of old drove the pollen from the srees aInd scattered it oven the city, 1 creole householders awoke the next | morning to find, in horror, a yellow or saffron dirt on their front steps, and | shook thetrheads graNely witch the pre- | dictdon ithae it meant fever.
 | It is almost impossible to exaggerate .he amount of annoy vance caused by the | bugs. The first night they drove peo- l pie from yhe street caias and evsn from | tho streets. Along Canal street, the | principal shopping thoroughfare Of the | city, they were an inch or more deep | on the pavement and three and four | inches deep i'm daifts against the walls. | It was impossible to walk on the street | with comfort, for not on1y did you Slip | ard slide upon tine greasy insects, but | furthermore they pelted you in the face, | hitting as hard as hail, and they chung 10 your clothing and hair, and could only | with difficulty be disoldged The bugs were hard, black beetles, almost an inch long. Such was then force that they fell
 never to rise again when they struck | any yhing, but they crawled along the pavement and over one another In a | seething, repulsive mass.
 | In6 QlScCEnTOrL made atSeH IelU ILL a | hundred ways The bugs flew into the l brightly lighted cars in such numbers ] fnl sorfis cases coverilng the floor and seait | aE inch dsep-that women screamed and | sought refuge on the back platforms. The motormen had a hard time of it, for | at every corner lhey turned they were pelted i'm iGpe face by the bugs, so that | they could with difficulty hold on to | their gufp and see ahead of them
 Thousands of tlhe insects were crush z1r. tu.- | they exude am oily matter, the tracks be- came so slippery, particularly on St. | Charles avenue, thet ,fle wheels slipped around and the cars slid and it was inn | possible to stop them at the corners. On 1 the streets the bugs were piled so high | that it was not only unpleasant, but in | convenient to walk there and men as l we'll as women sought tlpe center of the | street, where the bugs were not quite | so bad; but even there many were to be l found to the great nuisance of bicyclists | as the p'aNementS were too slippery foi | their wheels.
 Hour after hour the nuisance conin- | ued until pyramids of bugs were piled 1 up under each eleotrtc light, and yet
 fresh armies seemed to come Finally, | the electric lights, which were evident | ly attracting ithe bugs, were extlnguished | in front of many of ,.he stores and res
 taurants, the people preferring darkness | to bugs.
 When New Orleans awoke the next
 morning it was to find stiH another nui- | sance created by the bugs. It had con- | graduated itself that it would be at
 least free from them in the daytime, as l they seem to be altogether night ma- | rauderS, and so 1t was but the pavement | was strewn with the corpses of the dead
 insects. The househoDders swept them
 into pyramids at each corner, and the commissioner of public works removed
 the next day some 5O,OO0 bushels of pow | dered or caIscined bugs, with about 200, 900 | bugs to the busheA Nearly all the in-
 ssscts had been crushed or trampled to | dsa tn by thta pedestrians, carts and cars.
 The oil pressed out of them has soaked
 deep into the pavements everywhere, not | only making them slippery, but also giv- 1 ing them a most offensive odor of rank
 lew-grade Itallow candles. That odor
 now permeates New Orleans from end | to end. The bugs have been carts d
 away by the city authorities, although
 this has been done only at considerable | expense and inconvenience for fresh
 svarms arrive every night to be
 slaughtered, and have to be swept up
 and cahu-hsd off every morning, but the
 o1or fingers in the pavements, which
 are literally soaked in bug oil, and so fur has resisted scrubbing as thoroughly
 a5 tIhe blood on Bluebeards key. The Iscpsmists have finally been appealed to to
 and getting rid of the odor which clings
 tn the pavement
 The new invader Is the Chaaepvs
 traehspygus Vary Mttle is known of the
 s,ecies as yet but its coming this year
 is attributed to two causes, one natural,
 ethe other due to man. The bug is bee
 te which lays its eggs In the grass. In
 -a6ew days these eggs hatch into small grubs that feed upon Hhe roots of various
 pants The grubs remain in the ground
 feeding and increasing i'm size until the
 following summer when they change in-
 t pupae, and after few weeks come frth as beetles.
 Along the gulf coast, particularly to ths southeast of New Orleans, are many lIrairie or stretches of sea marsh, drl
 which billions of thsse bugs are matched
 and bred, Usually they remain there,
 hut this year a succession of east winds
 lave driven the waters of the gulf over
 tisse prairies, and the bugs have been compelled to change quarters Formerly
 oa the gulf coast were to be found mill
 lbns of birds which fed and fattened . oA these bugs, but of late, owing to the mad demand for feathers, these birds ! have been killed off by ahe hunters, and