(i) Red Ants.—Grease a plate with lard, and set it where the insects abound. They prefer lard to anything else, and will forsake sugar for it. Place a few sticks around the plate for the ants to climb up on. Occasionally turn the plate bottom up over the fire, and the ants will fall in with the melting lard. Reset the plate, and in a short time you will catch them all.
Blackbeetles.—(a) Keep a hedgehog. (b) Set a deep dish or earthen pan, containing a little sugared beer by way of attraction; it will entrap the insects in vast numbers, if a few pieces of wood are inclined against the sides to serve as ladders. They will tumble in when they reach the edge, and the glazed sides will prevent their getting out. (c) Immediately before bedtime, strew the floor of those parts of the house most infested with the vermin with the green peel, cut not very thin, from the cucumber. (d) A mixture of Persian insect powder and powdered wormseed, thrown about where they frequent. (e) Use powdered borax, about ½ lb. to each room. It requires perseverance and care in its use. It should be scattered about freely wherever they congregate, and particularly in cracks and crevices where they can hide from it. It may be blown or forced by the blade of a knife into narrow cracks. The effect of the borax is to cause them to emigrate. It may kill a few, which will be found afterwards in a dried withered up condition lying about on the floor. They may be swept up without injury to carpets or furniture.
Bugs.—The following are paste poisons:—(a) 1 oz. mercurial ointment, ¼ oz. corrosive sublimate, ¼ oz. Venetian red. (b) Soft soap and cayenne pepper. (c) Soft soap and corrosive sublimate. (d) Soft soap and strong snuff. The following are washes for furniture or floors:—(a) A small quantity (6d. worth) salts of wormwood, dissolved in a bucket of hot writer. (b) Solution of pyroligneous acid, arsenite of potash, decoction of oak bark, and garlic. (c) 2 dr. corrosive sublimate, 8 oz. spirits of wine rubbed in mortar till dissolved, then add ½ pint spirits of turpentine. (d) 1 lb. each sal ammoniac, and corrosive sublimate, 8 gal. hot water. (e) 1½ oz. camphor, 8 oz. each spirits of turpentine and spirits of wine. (f) Weak solution of zinc chloride. (g) Benzine. (h) Equal parts spirits of turpentine and kerosene. Application:—(a) The room must be thoroughly cleared; take the bed and bedclothes into the open air, and beat them thoroughly; take the bedstead to pieces, and after a thorough purification with hot water, plug every hole and crevice with one of the pastes given above; stop all cracks, &c., in the floor and walls with the paste also. (b) Empty the room; scrape off all paper and burn immediately on the spot in charcoal brazier; fill all cracks in plaster, paint, and wormwood with a poison paste; scent the floor with a wash; burn all old scraps of carpet.
Crickets.—(a) Half fill some jampots with water and set at night. (b) A covered box with perforated lid containing a little salt or oatmeal.
Earwigs.—Place lengths of hollow bean-stalk or other tube where the insects collect, and each morning empty them into boiling water by blowing sharply through.
Fleas.—In Beds.—(a) Sprinkle chamomile flowers in the bed. (b) Use young leaves of wild myrtle in the same way. (c) Strew fresh mint under the beds. (d) Have walnut leaves about the person. (e) Place a piece of new flannel in the bed, and there seek the vermin. (f) Sprinkle the bed or night dress with a little solution of camphor in spirits of wine. (g) Sponge your person with camphor water-¼ oz. camphor, ½ oz. tincture of myrrh in 1 qt. water, shake well before use.
In Rooms.—(a) Slice a strong onion and rub the bottom edge of the trousers. The favourite point of attack is at the ankles and the legs up to the knee; they do not jump so much from above. (b) Make a strong decoction of laurel leaves by filling a large copper with the leaves, adding as much water as possible, and boil for 4 or 5 hours. Then take the leaves away, and deluge the floors with the boiling hot liquor. The liquor will but very slightly discolour the ceilings, which can be whitened again.
On Animals.—(a) Oil of pennyroyal will certainly drive them off; but a cheaper method, where the herb flourishes, is to dip dogs and cats into a decoction of it once a week. Mow the herb and scatter it in the beds of pigs once a month. Where the herb cannot be got, the oil may be procured. In this case, saturate strings with it and tie them around the necks of dogs and cats, pour a little on the back and about the ears of hogs, which you can do while they are feeding, without touching them. By repeating these applications every 12 or 15 days, the fleas will leave the animals. Strings saturated with the oil of pennyroyal, and tied around the neck and tail of horses, will drive off lice; the strings should be saturated once a day. (b) Equal parts ox-gall, oil of camphor, oil of pennyroyal, extract of gentian, spirits of wine; wash.
Flies.—In Rooms.—(a) A castor-oil plant growing in the room kills many and drives away the rest. (b) A bunch of walnut leaves keeps them out. (c) A large, handsome Japanese lily (Lilium auratum) behaves like the castor-oil plant. (d) Soak blotting-paper in a solution of sugar of lead, and sweeten with molasses. (e) Mix treacle, moist sugar, or honey with 1/12 of orpiment. (f) Boil ¼ oz. of quassia chips in 1 pint water for 10 minutes; strain; add 4 oz. molasses. (g) Spread laurel oil on picture frames, curtains, &c. (h) When going to bed, blow some Persian or Dalmatian insect powder into the air of the room and close it for the night; burn the dust swept from the room in the morning.
On Animals.—(a) Procure a bunch of smartweed, and bruise it to cause the juice to exude. Rub the animal thoroughly with the bunch of bruised weed, especially on the legs, neck, and ears. Neither flies nor other insects will trouble him for 24 hours. The process should be repeated every day. A very convenient way of using it, is to make a strong infusion by boiling the weed a few minutes in water. When cold it can be conveniently applied with a sponge or brush. Smartweed is found growing in every section of the country in the United States, usually on wet ground near highways. (b) Scatter lime chloride on a board in the stable or pen.