The broad ax., 1915-10-09
CONCERNING CoCKRoAcHEs.

Cockroaches are an unmitigate0
household pest as all good housewife:
will agree. 1t will be accepted with
out argument that they are the com
monest as well as the most offensive
of the many kinds of insects that in
fest human habitations. Also it is
now pretty well understood that they
are dangerous as carriers of disease.
Cockroaches, the kind we all are
familiar with, belong to a very large
family, most of which fortunately have
not become domesticated. The En-
glish call them "black beetles"; but
the two kinds most familiar to Am
erican housewives are the big brown
fellows and the little German roach,
called in New York City the "Croton
water bug" But outside of these two
familiar types it is estimated that
nearly 5000 species of this big family
have been described and preserved in
collections in different parts of the
world.
Reaches, as is well known, infest
pantries and kitchens and have a
special liking it seems for the oven
rooms of bakeries, on account of the
warmth, and from which they can al
ways find the best of foraging grounds.
In dwellings they conceal themselves
during the day behind baseboards,
cracks in the floors and walls and other
convenient hiding places.
The domestic reaches are practically
omnivorous, that is they will feed on
almost any dead animal matter, food
stuffs, such as bread, cake, pies and
cereal products of every kind. 1t is
also asserted that they will eat their
own cast off skins and egg cases and
that they attack and eat other species
of reaches. They also eat or gnaw
woolens and leather and frequently do
much damage to book bindings. They
are especially fond of the paste or siz-
ing in cloth bound books; also of sea
biscuits, entire supplies of which, it is
recorded, have been ruined or almost
wholly devoured by reaches.
But the damage done by reaches is
by no means confined to the amount of
foods they consume, but is found in
the fact that they pollute and render
nauseous and dangerous everything in
the line of human food, everything
with which they come in contact. AS
is well known, wherever reaches run
in large numbers, they create a fetid,
odor which clings persistent
ly to pantry and kitchen shelves and
and which can only be
removed by through cleansing with
soap and boiling water. According to
a bulletin, issued by the Bureau of
Entimology of the U. s. Department of
Agriculture, this odor comes partly
from the excrement, but chiefly is due
to dark colored fluid exuded from the
"ou1h VI thO iHcCCtJ Will WuiCu Ii
stains its runways, and also in part
from the scent glands which secrete an
oily liquid, which possesses a very
and disagreeable odor.
One of the simplest and most effec-
tive means of Kidding premises of
cockroaches is that of busting their
runways with commercial sodium
fiuorid, mixed in equal parts with -four.
Numerous tests with this agency have
been made by the Bureau of Entomol-
ogy of the u. S. Department of Agri-
culture in bakeries, lunch rooms and
milk depots and with satisfactory re-
suits.
A good way to apply the mixture of
sodium fiuorid and -four is with a dust
gun or powder blower, which can be
purchased at any drug store. The mix
ture should be thoroughly busted over
the shelves, tables, floors and runways.
The immediate effect will be noticed
that the insects will come out of their
hiding places and after rushing about
in a frantic manner for time they
become paralyzed and soon die. The
dead or paralyzed reaches may then
be swept up and burned. As q rule
premises can be ridden Of reaches by
this method in twenty-four hours. The
government experts are Of the opinion
that the sodium auorid acts as q con.
tact insectitide and as q stomach
poison. Also il has been found that
IL viii kill caterpillars that have fed
on foliage, that has been busted with
the same mixture.