INSECT PESTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 43, 20 January 1936, Page 8

INSECT PESTS

’N.S.W. HOUSEHOLDERS’ WORRIES. ERADICATION MEASURES. Householders in many parts of New South Wales are experiencing considerable trouble in and about their homes with insect pests, says the Sydney Morning, Herald. The Department of Agriculture has evolved, satisfactory control measures for the insects, and householders can generally rid themselves of the troublesome visitors by strictly adhering to the recommendations.

A very efficient formula for dealing with the common black ant, and also with the large brown sugar ant, can be made by boiling together slowly for '3O minutes sugar lib, water nine-tenths pint, crystallised tartaric acid threequarter gramme, and benzoate of soda one gramme. - This should be allowed to cool and the water lost by evaporation added. Two grammes of sodium arsonite are then dissolved in onetenth pint of hot water, allowed tq cool, and added to the sugar solution previously made, stirring well. To this 240 z of honey is added and thoroughly mixed. The constituents are all cheaply obtained but, generally, it is better to leave the formula with the chemist, who will mix up the amount required. About n tenth of the quantity quoted should be adequate for all normal requirements. The bait should be'set out in a flat tin or saucer in the track of the ants, preferably outside. As the bait is poisonous care must be exercised in handling it. Attention should also be directed to the nests of the ants if these can he found. The insects in these, as well as the common mound or gravel nest ants and the stinging “bulldog” or “soldier” ants, can be killed by fumigation. Carbon bisulphide can be used, 2 or 3 ounces of the liquid being poured down each rnaip opening of the nest and the apertures covered lip. The gas given off penetrates the galleries of the nest and kills out the colony. Care should be taken not to r.ring any. lights or fire near the gas, as it is very inflammable.

FLEAS AND SILVER FISH

Fleas have been particularly bad this year in several suburbs. There are three species to be eliminated —those on dogs, cats, and human beings. The animals should be dusted wicli derris or pyrethrum powder, rubbing it well into the hair. Several treatments at short intervals may at first lie needed, but after this regular attention every week or fortnight is desirable. Another method of cleansing the animals is to wash them with one of the many carbolic preparations available. Animals so treated should afterwards be washed with waTin soap and water, and then carefully dried. Rcinfestation will take place if the source of contamination is not removed. Kennels or other places should, therefore, be cleaned, and all debris burnt. The structures should then be sprayed with 10 per cent, kerosene emulsion, or carbolic preparations such as are sold as liquid sheep dips. Thorough cleaning of the house is essential, so that no small accumulations of dust or dirt remain in which the pest affecting human beings may breed. The liberal and regular use of a kerosene-pyrethruin spray is recommended around the skirting boards and carpet edges. Dabbing around and under the carpet edges with- kerosene also kills large numbers when a “plague” is present. _ ■ The kerosene-pyre thrum spray mixture is also valuable in the eradication, of silver fish, which insect, having a preference for materials containing starch, attacks glazed paper, book bindings, wallpaper, and artificial silk. All places likely to harbour the pest should be sprayed, care being taken to force the liquid well into cracks or crevices and behind skirting boards and picture mouldings. The kerosene-pyrethrum mixture may he prepared by shaking 4oz of pyrethrum powder in a quart of kerosene and allowing the liquid to stand for 8 hours. It is then strained through fine musli*i, after which -? fluid ounce of methyl salicylate is added.

Sheltering places of the silver-fish should be dusted with a mixture of equal parts of sodium silico-fluoride and flour, blowing the substance down into the biding places with a small insect powder blower. The powder should not come into contact with food. MOTHS AND COCKROACHES.

The larvae or caterpillars of the clothes moth feed upon wool, fur, hair, feathers, and all fabrics manufactured from them, such as clothing and carpets. Infested carpets and upholstered rurniture may lie sprayed with the py-rethrum-kerosehe mixture to kill the larvae. Brushing with a firm brush and the use of a vacuum cleaner are also of value in preventing injury. Clothing should not ho kept in the wardrobes or cupboards for long periods without attention. The articles should he regularly brushed and hung out in the sunlight. Wearing apparel stored from season to season is best placed in closely-fitted chests. Careful wrapping with big sheets of paper is also of value with uninfested garments. Napthaleue flakes, napthaleue moth halls, or para-dichlor-benzine are effective for protecting clothing in chests and wellmade cupboards, etc., when used at the rate of not less than lib to every eight cubic feet of space. To assist in combating cockroaches, no waste food should be left about, and all surfaces used for the preparation of food should be regularly scrubbed down, to remove grease and the odour of food. Where the cockroaches have become established a mixture of equal silico-fluoride and flour should he blown well into all places where the insects shelter. A small insect powder blower can be used for this purpose. The pest should commence to disappear in from two to three weeks time. In damp situations, such as basements and cellars, a sweetened phosphorus poison, like that, used for rats, smeared on boards, will eradicate the pest. None -of the substances recommended shop Id come into contact with food.