THE COMMON COCKROACH OR CROTON BUG Exterminators of Cockroaches.— Substances recommended to kill or disperse cockroaches are fumes of hydrocyanic-acid gas, sulphur, pyr ethrum, bichloride of mercury, borax, phosphorus, plaster of Paris, arsenic, pokeroot, chloride of lime, hellebore, and various mechanical means of trap ping the insects.
To completely exterminate cock roaches in dwellings, warehouses, libraries, and stores, fumigate with sulphur or hydrocyanic-acid gas.
Or mix in a glass bottle 1 ounce of corrosive sublimate and pint of water. Let stand a day or two and shake occasionally. Then add I pint of alcohol. Apply to cracks infested by cockroaches from an oil can or syringe. This liquid soaks into the wood and leaves a thin powder of cor rosive sublimate covering the crevices. This is a deadly poison to cockroaches and other insects, but is also poison ous to human beings and must be handled with the utmost care. Do not allow this mixture to touch brass or copper.
Or mix equal quantities of grated sweet chocolate and powdered borax, or equal quantities of powdered sugar and powdered borax, and spread free ly on shelves where cockroaches run, or spread on pieces of slightly mois tened bread.
Or spread phosphorus paste on moist bread in their runways or under a damp dishcloth, towel, or mop.
Or mix in a saucer 1 part of plaster of Paris and 3 parts of flour, and place in the runways. Place near by another saucer containing pure water.
Lay thin pieces of cardboard from one to the other as bridges and float on the water bits of thin board touch ing the margin. The cockroaches eat the flour and plaster of Paris, become thirsty, and drink. The plaster then sets and kills them. This is an Aus tralian method. It is simple, safe, and said to be very effective.
Or scatter pulverized hellebore on shelves, behind baseboards, about sinks, etc.
Or scatter hellebore on moistened bread, but remember that this is also poisonous to children and household pets. Cockroaches eat it freely.
Or mix hellebore with molasses, powdered sugar, or grated sweet chocolate.
Or mix arsenic with Indian meal or molasses. Spread on moistened bread. This also is a dangerous poison, and cockroaches will not take it as freely as other poisons.
Or mix in saucers chloride of lime with sweetened water and place in the runways, with bits of pasteboard lead ing up to the saucers and strips of wood floating on their surface touching the edge.
Or boil 2 ounces of pokewood in 1 pint of water 15 or 20 minutes. Strain through cheese cloth, mix with molasses, and spread on moistened bread or plates.
Or dust the cracks, shelves, etc., with powdered pyrethrum by means of a pair of bellows or otherwise. This
is especially useful in libraries, but it stupefies and does not always kill the cockroaches; hence they must be swept up and burned.
Or scatter fresh cucumber peelings in their runways.
Or mix plaster of Paris, 1 part, oat meal, 3 parts, powdered sugar or grat ed sweet chocolate, 1 part; scatter on moistened bread and place near to open water.
Or mix equal parts of carbolic acid and powdered camphor, and let stand until dissolved. Apply with a small paint brush to cracks and crevices haunted by them.
But of all the above, powdered borax, with or without flour, and pow dered sugar, or both, is perhaps the safest and most useful remedy. It may be dusted freely on shelves, sinks, and kitchen floors, and also forced by means of bellows into cracks and crevices, about floors, baseboards, cup boards, sinks, etc. It is cheap, and harmless to children and household pets, and is far superior to any so called " cockroach powder " upon the market.
To Trap Roaches.—Take any deep pasteboard or wooden box and substi tute for the cover four pieces of win dow glass slanting toward the center. Put bread moistened with molasses in the trap and place it so that the cock roaches can easily get to the top. They fall from the glass into the box, and cannot get out. This is a well known French device.
Another trap used in England con sists of any suitable box of wood or pasteboard having a round hole in the lid fitted with a glass ring and baited with bread moistened with molasses or other sweetener.
Or take any deep china bowl or jar and put in it about a quart of stale beer or ale, of which cockroaches are especially fond, or water sweetened with molasses. Lean against this a number of pieces of pasteboard or any inclined surface bending over the top so as to project inside the vessel 2 or 3 inches. The cockroaches climb up the inclined plane, slip into the liquid, and cannot escape.
To Use Cockroach Traps.—Bait the traps freshly each night with any moist sweet substance, and destroy the catch of roaches each morning by fire or boiling water. Have traps al ways at hand, and they will keep down cockroaches so that it will not be necessary to use dangerous poisons more than perhaps once.
Crickets.—The celebrated story by Charles Dickens called " The Cricket on the Hearth," and the well-known superstition in regard to crickets, will perhaps prevent many persons from numbering these little insects among household pests. To exterminate them, if desired, scatter snuff about their haunts, pour boiling water into cracks and crevices from which they emerge, or put ginger cordial in open saucers where they can partake of it.