The Washington times., 1918-07-21

only one Of them, the common house fly,
has the bad habit Of carrying filth to our
food. To certain insects which feed on
dead wood we are indebted for ridding US
Of much refuse of a sort that would other
wise seriously accumulate.
In other times and under other condi-
tions men have not despissd the insect as
a means of subsistence. Even to-day va
riOus insects, as in the case Of locusts al
ready mentioned, are eaten and relished By
men. The locust has long been and is still
eaten in Arabia, Persia and Africa. The
Moors fry the insect in butter, making
favorite and staple dish. Locusts are used
extensively as food in India. A mixture of
pulverized ants, grasshoppers and Iocusts
dried in the sun was a delicacy with GER
tain Indian tribes, while others preferred
grasshoppers and crickets combined, with
roasted ants as variant. Grasshoppers
were also used in soup and boiled into
paste.
Among other insects which have been
and are considered of gastronomic value
are caterpillars, moths, a favorite in some
parts Of Africa; the pupae of the silkworm
in China; ants, alive and roasted, are ap-
preciated in Burmah, as well as by the
Indians Of North and South America, while
it is said the lumbermen of Maine enjoy
an occasional meal of large wood ants.
The beetle is eaten in the Nile Valley, in
Turkey. Lombardy, Java, Peru, and is said
to be nutritious and fattening. In Gen.
trail America the eggs Of three aquatic
bugs are made into little cakes and
eaten. Mexicans make a strong drink by
infusing a tiger beetle in alcohol.
As most people know, many insects are
employed in medicine, and some of them
that might be harmful in their natural
activities are, when used as medicine,
made to serve good purpose. A beetle
called the Spanish fly is fairly widely
used as a blistering agent, and also forms
an ingredient of many hair washes The
oil beetle when handled elects from the
joints of the legs clear yellow oil which
has been used with success as a remedy
for hydrophobia in some parts of the
world, and in Sweden it is used as an
ointment for rheumatic Inflammation.
The gals of the gall fly furnish tannin
which has strong astringent properties.
while formic acid, which is now made
artihcially used to be made from ants.
In addition to the insects which help
man by their warfare against his enc
mics and those that are useful to him in
medicine, there are many others that serve
useful purposes in a commercial way
Most familiar of these are the honey and
wax obtained from the bee. There is a
Chinese bug which secretes a kind Of
grease on trees. This hardens into wax
and is collected, melted and purified
when it becomes white and glossy in ap-
pearance, and when mixed with oil ii can
be made into candles.
The cochineal a scale insect living on
cacti in the American tropics, besides hav-
ing medicinal properties, yields the two
dyeJ called carmine and lake. The natural
dye Of the cochineal is used in coloring
soldiers uniforms, as It stands the weather
better than commercial dyes.
No enlargement is needed on the work
of the silkworm native of China, which
Is now being raised in this country. Com
mercial shellac is obtained by melting lac,
the resinous substance produced by the
East Indian scale insect and deposited in
a crust on twigs to contain the insect and
the eggs. The export value of shellac from
Indian ports in one year has risen as high
as S10,O00,0OO. Lac has also been used to
make dyes, and is also used as stiffening
for hats, as a sealing wax ingredient, as a
part of lithographic ink. in electrical work
and in the manufacture of phonograph
records.
So, considering all phases Of the sub
ject, it will be seen that insects for the
most part are serviceable to man in many
different ways-even the harmful insects
are made to serve a useful purpose in
many cases. The good that insects do is
far greater than the harm they intlict.