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Expelling Flies From Rooms

It is stated that if two and a half pounds of powdered laurel leaves are macerated or boiled in two gallons of water, until their poisonous quality is extracted, and with the solution a whitewash is made, by adding as much quicklime as can be slaked in it, and if a room be whitewashed with this preparation, flies will not settle on the walls for six months. If a paste, made by stirring together one pint of the powdered laurel leaves with a quarter pint of glycerine, be applied to windows and door casings, a room so prepared will soon be emptied of flies. Two applications of this paste are enough to keep even a kitchen clear of insects for a fortnight.

There is nothing disagreeable or deleterious to human beings in the odor of the wash or paste, though laurel leaves, or laurel water, taken into the human stomach, acts as a violent poison.

You may also drive flies out with a brush, but, unless something is done to render the place uninviting to them, they will return immediately. There are many weeds or plants emitting an empyreumatic odor which answer well for the purpose. None are more effectual than the wild chamomile (Mayweed). The odor of this plant is not at all disagreeable, and branches of the weed when in flower, or some of the dried flowers, scattered about a room, will soon rid it of all flies.

Another way is to throw some powdered black pepper on a hot shovel and carry it about the room. The generation of empyreumatic vapors in the same way from other spices will also, it is said, answer the purpose. A few drops of carbolic acid or creosote, on a cloth hung up in a sick-room or used in the dressings, would probably be effectual, but the odor is not usually so acceptable to one's olfactories.

The best thing of all is to keep them out. The author has never found any means of doing this so cheap, effectual and pleasant, as wire screens to all doors and windows. This will keep them out, with a little driving occasionally, if the doors all open outward. For mosquitoes and gnats, when it is impracticable to keep them out, as in the case of tents, used while camping out, a little brown sugar burned on coals we have found effective in some instances in driving them away, but of course a good mosquito-bar is the best.

IX. Cloth and Fur Moths.

THE small moths so destructive to cabinets, tapestry, clothes, carpets, furs, grains, etc., are called tineans, and belong to the natural order lepidoptera. They have four membranous wings covered with imbricated scales, like fine powder-as the butterflies and moths. Among these are the carpet moth, the clothes moth, the fur moth, and the hair moth. These moths are nocturnal in their habits, flying in the evening. They do not lay their eggs in material in constant use, and therefore wardrobes, drawers, chests, etc., should be frequently examined, and the contents aired, and beaten to dislodge the eggs or larvæ.

In old houses subject to their depredations, the cracks in closets, and other exposed places, may be brushed over with turpentine or other odorous substances. Sheets of paper sprinkled with spirits of turpentine, powdered camphor, shavings of Russia leather or tobacco, are also preventives. Chests and boxes of camphor-wood, red cedar and Spanish cedar, are obnoxious to these insects, and are useful for preserving costly articles. The cloth linings of carriages, etc., may be preserved from their depredations by being sponged on both sides with a solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol, just s rong enough so that it will not bleach a black feather white. The insects may also De killed by fumigating with tobacco smoke, or the fumes of sulphur. It is also said that if hemp, in flower, cut and dried, be placed in a cushion, it will prevent the ravages of moths for years.

Furs. A good recipe for preserving furs from moths is: One ounce gum camphor and one of powdered shell of red pepper. Macerate in eight ounces of alcohol for several days, then strain. Sprinkle furs, etc., with this tincture, roll up in a clean cloth and lay away.

X. Book-Destroying Insects.

Books, large or small, made up of dry paper, are nesting-places for a variety of insects, hardly large enough to be recognized as living things. Besides making themselves homes between the leaves, they feast on the paste, binding, twine on the backs and the green mold that gathers on them if neglected. One species takes up residence in the binding, devouring as it goes. Another feeds upon the paste. Still another book pest that is sure to appear in a library, not overhauled and dusted occasionally, eats through a volume.

Bookcases should not be made light with glass doors. Wire-netting is far preferable, because the books are kept drier; fresh air is all-important. An upper story is superior to a basement, being less liable to gather mold, which is a forest of minute vines in which bookworms ramble for exercise. Twice in each summer the books should be exposed to a bright sunlight while dusting them, also exposing the open leaves to a fresh current of air.

XI. Kerosene.

KEROSENE is volatile and its vapor is explosive. Only the best oils-from 150 degrees fire test up to 175 degrees should be used. The oil does not explode. An oil may even extinguish a burning match when thrown into it, and yet be highly dangerous to be used as a burning fluid. It is the vapor of these oils mixed with air that is dangerous, as far as explosion is concerned. While a partly filled lamp has the portion above the oil filled with a mixture of vapor and air, it may explode. When a lamp is filled while lighted, the mixture of air and vapor in the can or filler explodes upon coming in contact with the flame; the oil itself does not explode, though it does serious injury when scattered by the explosion.