How to Drive Away Mosquitoes.—1. A camphor bag hung up in an open casement will prove an effectual barrier to their entrance. Camphorated spirits applied as perfume to the face and hands will prove an effectual preventive; but when bitten by them, aromatic vinegar is the beat antidote.
2. A small amount of oil of pennyroyal sprinkled around the room will drive away the mosquitoes. This is an excellent recipe.
3. Take of gum camphor a piece about half the size of an egg, and evaporate it by placing it in a tin vessel and holding it over a lamp or candle, taking care that it does not ignite. The smoke will soon fill the room and expel the mosquitoes.
How to Preserve Clothing from Moths.—1. Procure shavings of cedar wood and enclose in muslin bags, which should be distributed freely among clothes. 2. Procure shavings of camphor wood, and enclose in bags. 3. Sprinkle pimento (allspice) berries among the clothes. 4. Sprinkle the clothes with the seeds of the musk plant. 5. An ounce of gum camphor and one of the powdered shell of red pepper are macerated in eight ounces of strong alcohol for several days, then strained. With this tincture the furs or cloths are sprinkled over, and rolled up in sheets. 6. Carefully shake and brush woolens early in the spring, so as to be certain that no eggs are in them; then sew them up in cotton or linen wrappers, putting a piece of camphor gum, tied up in a bit of muslin, into each bundle, or into the chests and closets where the articles are to lie. No moth will approach while the smell of the camphor continues. When the gum is evaporated, it must be renewed. Enclose them in a moth-proof box with camphor, no matter whether made of white paper or white pine, before any eggs are laid on them by early spring moths. The notion of having a trunk made of some particular kind of wood for this purpose, is nonsense. Furs or woolens, put away in spring time, before moth eggs are laid, into boxes, trunks, drawers, or closets even, where moths cannot enter, will be safe from the ravages of moth-worms, provided none were in them that were laid late in the autumn, for they are not of spontaneous production.
How to Kill Moths in Carpets.—Wring a coarse crash towel out of clear water, spread it smoothly on the carpet, iron it dry with a good hot iron, repeating the operation on all parts of the carpet suspected of being infected with moths. No need to press hard, and neither the pile nor color of the carpet will he injured, and the moths will be destroyed by the heat and steam.
How to Destroy Rats.—1. When a house is invested with rats which refuse to be caught by cheese and other baits, a few drops of the highly-scented oil of rhodium poured on the bottom of the cage will be an attraction which they cannot refuse. 2. Place on the floor near where their holes are supposed to be a thin layer of moist caustic potash. When the rats travel on this, it will cause their feet to become sore, which they lick, and their tongues become likewise sore. The consequence is, that they shun this locality, and seem to inform all the neighboring rats about it, and the result is that they soon abandon a house that has such mean floors. 3. Cut some corks as thin as wafers, and fry, roast, or stew them in grease, and place the same in their track; or a dried sponge fried or dipped in molasses or honey, with a small quantity of bird lime or oil of rhodium, will fasten to their fur and cause them to depart. 4. If a live rat can be caught and smeared over with tar or train oil, and afterwards allowed to escape in the holes of other rats, he will cause all soon to take their departure. 5. If a live rat be caught, and a small bell be fastened around his neck, and allowed to escape, all of his brother rats as well as himself will very soon go to some other neighbor's house. 6. Take a pan, about twelve inches deep, and half fill it with water; then sprinkle some bran on the water and set the pan in a place where the rats most frequent. In the morning you will find several rats in the pan. 7. Flour, three parts; sugar, one-half part; sulphur, two parts, and phosphorus, two parts. Smear on meat, and place near where the rats are most troublesome. 8. Squills are an excellent poison for rats. The powder should be mixed with some fatty substance, and spread upon slices of bread. The pulp of is also very good. Rats are very fond of either. 9. Take two ounces of carbonate of barytes, and mix with one pound of suet or tallow, place a portion of this within their holes and about their haunts. It is greedily eaten, produces great thirst, and death ensues after drinking. This is a very effectual poison, because it is both tasteless and odorless. 10. Take one ounce of finely powdered arsenic, one ounce of lard; mix these into a paste with meal, put it about the haunts of rats. They will eat of it greedily. 11. Make a paste of one ounce of flour, one-half gill of water, one drachm of phosphorus, and one ounce of flour. Or, one ounce of flour, two ounces of powdered cheese crumbs, and one-half drachm of phosphorus; add to each of these mixtures a few drops of the oil of rhodium, and spread this on thin pieces of bread like butter; the rats will eat of this greedily, and it is a sure poison. 12. Mix some ground plaster of paris with some sugar and Indian meal. Set it about on plates, and leave beside each plate a saucer of water. When the rats have eaten the mixture they will drink the water and die. To attract them toward it, you may sprinkle on the edges of the plates a little of the oil of rhodium. Another method of getting rid of rats is, to strew pounded potash on their holes. The potash gets into their coats and irritates the skin, and the rats desert the place. 13. The Dutch method: this is said to be used successfully in Holland; we have, however, never tried it. A number of rats are left together to themselves in a very large trap or cage, with no food whatever; their craving hunger will, at last, cause them to fight and the weakest will be eaten by the others; after a short time the fight is renewed, and the next weakest is the victim, and so it goes on till one strong rat is left. When this one has eaten the last remains of any of the others, it is set loose; the animal has now acquired such a taste for rat-flesh that he is the terror of ratdom, going round seeking what rat he may devour. In an incredibly short time the premises are abandoned by all other rats, which will not come back before the cannibal rat has left or has died. 14. Catch a rat and smear him over with a mixture of phosphorus and lard, and then let him loose. The house will soon be emptied of these pests.
Vermin, in Water.—Go to the river or pond, and with a small net (a piece of old mosquito bar will do) collect a dozen or more of the small fishes known as minnows, and put them in your cistern, and in a short time you will have clear water, the wiggle-tails and reddish-colored bugs or lice being gobbled up by the fishes.
