I have already, in the preceding volume, mentioned the Mosquitoes, as a kind of disagreeable gnats; and another noxious insect, the Bruchus Pisi, which destroys whole fields with pease. I shall here add some more.
There are a kind of Locusts which about every seventeenth year come hither in incredible numbers. They come out of the ground in the middle of May, and make, for six weeks together, such a noise in the trees and woods, that two persons who meet in such places, cannot understand each other, unless they speak louder than the locusts can chirp. During that time, they make, with the sting in their tail, holes into the soft bark of the little branches on the trees, by which means these branches are [[7]]ruined. They do no other harm to the trees or other plants. In the interval between the years when they are so numerous, they are only seen or heard single in the woods.
There is likewise a kind of Caterpillars in these provinces, which eat the leaves from the trees. They are also innumerable in some years. In the intervals there are but few of them: but when they come, they strip the trees so entirely of their leaves, that the woods in the middle of summer are as naked as in winter. They eat all kinds of leaves, and very few trees are left untouched by them; as, about that time of the year the heat is most excessive. The stripping the trees of their leaves has this fatal consequence, that they cannot withstand the heat, but dry up entirely. In this manner, great forests are sometimes entirely ruined. The Swedes who live here shewed me, here and there, great tracts in the woods, where young trees were now growing, instead of the old ones, which, some years ago, had been destroyed by the caterpillars. These caterpillars afterwards change into moths, or phalænæ, which shall be described in the sequel, in their proper places.
In other years the Grass-worms do a great deal of damage in several places, both in the meadows and corn-fields. For the [[8]]fields are at certain times over-run with great armies of these worms, as with the other insects; yet it is very happy that these many plagues do not come all together. For in those years when the locusts are numerous, the caterpillars and grass-worms are not very considerable, and it happens so with the latter kinds, so that only one of the three kinds comes at a time. Then there are several years when they are very scarce. The grass-worms have been observed to settle chiefly in a fat soil; but as soon as careful husbandmen discover them, they draw narrow channels with almost perpendicular sides quite round the field in which the worms are settled; then by creeping further they all fall into the ditch, and cannot get out again. I was assured by many persons that these three sorts of insects followed each other pretty closely; and that the locusts came in the first year, the caterpillars in the second, and the grass-worms in the last: I have likewise found by my own experience that this is partly true.
Moths, or Tineæ, which eat the clothes, are likewise abundant here. I have seen cloth, worsted gloves, and other woollen stuffs, which had hung all the summer locked up in a shrine, and had not been [[9]]taken care of, quite cut through by these worms, so that whole pieces fell out: Sometimes they were so spoiled that they could not be mended again. Furs which had been kept in the garret were frequently so ruined by worms, that the hair went off by handfuls. I am however not certain whether these worms were originally in the country, or whether they were brought over from Europe.
Fleas are likewise to be found in this part of the world. Many thousands were undoubtedly brought over from other countries; yet immense numbers of them have certainly been here since time immemorial. I have seen them on the grey squirrels, and on the hares which have been killed in such desart parts of this country, where no human creature ever lived. As I afterwards came further up into the country, and was obliged to lie at night in the huts and beds of the Indians, I was so plagued by immense quantities of fleas, that I imagined I was put to the torture. They drove me from the bed, and I was very glad to sleep on the benches below the roof of the huts. But it is easy to conceive that the many dogs which the Indians keep, breed fleas without end. Dogs and men lie promiscuously in the [[10]]huts; and a stranger can hardly lie down and shut his eyes, but he is in danger of being either squezed to death, or stifled by a dozen or more dogs, which lie round him, and upon him, in order to have a good resting place. For I imagine they do not expect that strangers will venture to beat them or throw them off, as their masters and mistresses commonly do.
The noisy Crickets (Gryllus domesticus) which are sometimes to be met with in the houses in Sweden, I have not perceived in any part of Pensylvania or New Jersey, and other people whom I have asked, could not say that they had ever seen any. In summer there are a kind of black Crickets[2] in the fields, which make exactly the same chirping noise as our house crickets. But they keep only to the fields, and were silent as soon as winter or the cold weather came on. They say it sometimes happens that these field crickets take refuge in houses, and chirp continually there, whilst it is warm weather, or whilst the rooms are warm; but as soon as it grows cold they are silent. In some parts of the province of New York, and in Canada, every [[11]]farm-house and most of the houses in the towns, swarm with so many, that no farm-house in our country can be better stocked with them. They continue their music there throughout the whole winter.
Bugs (Cimex lectularius) are very plentiful here. I have been sufficiently tormented by them, in many places in Canada: But I do not remember having seen any with the Indians, during my stay at Fort Frederic. The commander there, Mr. de Lousignan, told me, that none of the Illinois and other Indians of the western parts of North America knew any thing of these vermin. And he added, that he could with certainty say this from his own experience, having been among them for a great while. Yet I cannot determine whether bugs were first brought over by the Europeans, or whether they have originally been in the country. Many people looked upon them as natives of this country, and as a proof of it said, that under the wings of bats the people had often found bugs, which had eaten very deep into the flesh. It was therefore believed that the bats had got them in some hollow tree, and had afterwards brought them into the houses, as they commonly fix themselves close to the walls, and creep into the little chinks which [[12]]they meet with. But as I have never seen any bugs upon bats, I cannot say any thing upon that subject. Perhaps a louse or a tick (Acarus) has been taken for a bug. Or, if a real bug has been found upon a bat’s wing, it is very easy to conceive that it fixed on the bat, whilst the latter was sitting in the chinks of a house stocked with European bugs.
As the people here could not bear the inconvenience of these vermin, any more than we can in Sweden, they endeavoured to expel them by different means. I have already remarked in the preceding volume, that the beds to that purpose were made of Sassafras wood, but that they were only temporary remedies. Some persons assured me that they had found from their own experience, and by repeated trials, that no remedy was more effectual towards the expulsion of bugs, than the injecting of boiling water into all the cracks where they are settled, and washing all the wood of the beds with it; this being twice or thrice repeated, the bugs are wholly destroyed. But if there are bugs in neighbouring houses, they will fasten to one’s clothes, and thus be brought over into other houses.
I cannot say whether these remedies are [[13]]good or no, as I have not tried them; but by repeated trials I have been convinced that sulphur, if it be properly employed, entirely destroys bugs and their eggs in beds and walls, though they were ten times more numerous than the ants in an ant-hill[3].