The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-11
WAR ON THE COCKROACH.
This Kitchen Pest Holds His Ground
Despite Mans Ingenuity.
Harvey Sutherland in Ainslee's.

Harvey Sutherland in Ainslee's.
"The ingenuity of man from the earli-
est ages has been directed to the con-
struction of cockroach traps. Getting
a roach into a place where there is
something to eat is easy enough; getting
him to stay there ill you can come and
kill him is another matter. Putting mo-
lasses on a piece of board afcat in a
broad basin is said to be great sue
cess. 1 doubt 1t, for it is my experience
that cockroach is hard to drown. He
does not throw up his six hands at once
and sink bubbling 10 the bottom. sup
pose eventually he does drown; but I
have never had the patience to wait and
see. I have found that the least little
kerosene on the water has the effect OF
instantly killing him.
Another trap Is a glazed bowl half full
of stale beer or ale-their pledge allows
them to drink malt hquors-with lot of
sticks leaned up against It and project
ing over the liquid. They drop in and
drown themselves and, presumably, their
sorrows in the flowing bowl There are
other traps, all depending on the fact that
roach cannot climb up glazed surfaces
boxes with glass rings around a hole In
the top, and the like. But the trap is a
niggling kind Of warfare at best. II lacks
nothing whole-souled and generous about
it. Then too it defeats it's owns ends
in the long run, for the wise cockroaches
shade their heads and say, We'll, l don't
know about that are preserved and the
Needless eXtermnated so that the race
tends to become warier and warier, and
we bequeath to posterity yet unborn q
household pest that no trap can allure
be 1t ever so tempting. The cockroach
of to-day is plenty smart enough.
Destructive agencies that fall alike
upon the wise and the unwise are quick
lime and Persian powder blown into the
cracks where they hide. IL is mistake
10 suppose that the Persian powder will
kill. 1t is suffocating, for it gets into
the little holes in their sides through
which they breathe. They stay in hid
ing after the powder is blown in on them
as long as they can and then they rush
forth nervously, apparently crying,
Mercy land I can't stand this Well
directed blows with felt slipper at such
Zines do great execution. 1 often won
der that housewives do not appeal 10
the Anglo-Saxon passion for the chase
in husbands and sons. There Is much
sport I'm a cockroach battle. Under the
water pipes by the range in the crevices
of the stationary tubs are famous hunt
ing grounds. If you have taste for sci
entifc experiments you may seal up the
doors and windows with strips Of paper
smeared with molasses, and then sprinkle
bisulphide of carbon about. 1t is a vo-
lathe liquid, whose vapor is destructive
to all small life. 1t permeates the house
with a vociferous fragrance, compared
with which frying sauer kraut is mere
whisper II is similar in character,
though not so permanent, as the perfume
of the little animal with black-andw white
stripes around It's TAIL which is not a va
nilla plant, either. If all this does not
deter you, feel 1t my duty to give the
further warning that If the vapor Of BIZ
eulphide of carbon comes in contact with
flame it goes bang! regardless of conse-
quences. 1t is very impulsive, like gaso-
line.
1.-THE fumes of burning sulphur are Just
as eficacious as bisulphide Of carbon,
and not explosive at all, but they blacken
gilt things and impart distinct flavor of
blue-tipped matches TO all and sundry the
contents of the room. Also the place
needs airing for full twenty-four hours
afterward unless you are fond Of the ex-
ercise of coughing. Shippers Of fishing
smacks, not afraid or being thought fin
icl<y and over-nice, use the sulphur pro-
cess a few days before beginning the sea-
son, and follow 1t up two weeks later to