5. Crude pyroligneous acid.
6. Coal-tar naphtha. This, as well as No. 3 (above), should never be used by candle-light, as it is excessively inflammable. When the smell of the common naphtha is objectionable, benzol or benzine may be used instead. The celebrated nostrum vended under the name of ‘Insecticide’ is said to be nothing but benzol.
7. Sulphurated potash (in powder), 6 oz.; soft soap, 1⁄2 lb.; oil of turpentine, 1⁄4 pint or q. s. to make a species of soft ointment. The odour of the last three (Nos. 5, 6, 7) is rather persistent and disagreeable; but they are very effective.
8. Strong mercurial ointment, soft soap, and oil of turpentine, equal parts, triturated together. Rather greasy and dirty.
9. Scotch or Welsh snuff, mixed with twice its weight of soft soap.
10. Sulphur, or squills, in impalpable powder, blown into the cracks or joints, or scattered in a fine cloud, by means of a hollow ball or balloon of vulcanised india rubber filled with it and furnished with a small wooden jet or mouth-piece, or in any other convenient manner. Very cleanly and effective. Dumont’s ‘Patent Vermin Killer,’ as well as the whole host of imitations of it, is of this kind.
Obs. Out of the above list there is ample room for selection. The common practice is to take the bedstead or other piece of furniture to pieces before applying them.
These pests exist only in dirty houses. A careful housewife or servant will soon completely destroy them. The surest method of destruction is to catch them individually when they attack the person in bed. When their bite is felt, instantly rise and light a candle and capture them. This may be troublesome, but if there be not a great number a few nights will finish them. When there is a large number, and they have gained a lodgment in the timbers, take the bed in pieces, and fill in all the apertures and joints with a mixture of soft soap and Scotch snuff. A piece of wicker-work, called a BUG-TRAP, placed at the head of the bed, forms a receptacle for them, and then they may be daily caught till no more are left. Oil-painting a wall is a sure means of excluding and destroying them. It has been asserted that these insects are so fond of narrow-leaved dittany or
pepperwort (lepidium ruderale), that if a bunch of it be suspended near their haunts they will settle in it, and may be thus easily captured. It is said to be commonly used as a bug-trap in some of our rural districts. Water, poured boiling from the spout of a kettle into the cracks and joints, is a cleanly and certain remedy, which we have often seen employed; so also is a jet of steam; they are both destructive to all insects, and will be found particularly so to beetles.
The proper time for attacking these pests is early in March, or shortly before they are revived from their dormant state by the warm weather. See Insects.