Evening star., 1947-08-19
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trnce,Dell
&C STREET.


Dear Sir:
when arrived at my country home q month
ago, found the mud-and-moss nest OF q
phoebe bird on top OF the closed blind Of a win
dow that opens upon the front porch. It con-
tanned some newly Matched young, and one
egg that Matched the next day.
ITO accommodate this bird family we left
the blind closed, stayed Oh the porch all we
reasonably could, since the bird showed no
sign Of becoming used to having the family Of
humans around, and when the painters came
we had them paint around the nest without
disturbing it.
IN two weeks the young were ready to fly,
and on that day such swarms OF lice left the
nest that they darkened streak yard long
where the porch ceiling abutted the clapboard
as the smallest specks Of pepper, but could
travel at an unbelievable speed.
"As soon as noticed, these swar7ns were
treated to DDT sprays and bombs which
killed the pests instantly, but they had already
spread out into the second floor Of the house,
due to their remarkable swiftness, their minute
size and the fact that the porch is Of the cut-in
or re-entrant type with upstairs rooms directly
above 1t. Even bombs directed into the space
above the porch ceiling did not prevent their
reaching the rooms, and We had . perpetual
exterminating job the rest of the time we were
there, and had to leave the house saturated
with pest destroyers when we went away.
"You may be very sure that any other bird
nests we may discover around the house or in
close proximity will be Immediately destroyed,
regardless of contents Of eggs or young, and
their sites thoroughly disinfected.
Yours very truly, r. v. W."
Phoebes are famous for lice.
Just why these poor birds are picked on by
ie efbip0 NJ II
mystery.
All species suffer from them, but the phoebe
bird as so many people like to call 1t, is aicted
the worst.
There is the story of schoolteacher who
finding a phoebe's nest on her vacation, put
1t in her trunk.
She thought it would be nice to show to her
When she opened the trunk, she found her
clothes fairly crawling with lice, and their
eradication proved as difdcult as the similar
job of our correspondent.
One should not penalize other birds, though;
nests seem harmless enough in most cases.
Efforts OF squirrels to nest inside an attic
or in awnings, etc. mostly lead to trouble Of one
sort or another.
Flying squirrels sometimes like air spaces
over top floors. Care should be taken to board
up or screen all such openings.
As rule, lice in bird nests are kept down
by the mother birds, for her own sake and
that of her children.
She not only keeps the nest sanitary by re-
moving their. excreta, but also does away with
thousands Of lice.
Birds are Injured to them, without doubt,
since they have been q part Of their expert
ence for thousands Of years.
Human beings resent fieas and lice, along
with mosquitoes and others, as particularly OBJ
noxous pests, to be ranked with rats as mimi
cal to mankind.
Indiscriminate use of DDT sprays, however,
is not to be recommended as this material in
too high concentration is deadly to bird life
It must be remembered that 1t Is not the spray
itself which kills them but the insects which,
still crawling have eaten it.
Perhaps the only nests which need to be
feared in this respect are those of the poor
phoebes, upon whose innocent heads nature
seems to have heaped bit too much indignity.
Insect powders would be equally detrimental
used In or around bird nest. Nature generally
takes care of these matters After all, not
more than once q summer do atomic insects
bomb . household from Q bird nestl