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Household and Garden Pests: Hence

Hence use these freely about baseboards and on bedsteads where kerosene might stain carpets or bedding, but remember that they are highly inflammable. Use them only during daylight, and before introducing a lamp or lighted match, air the room until all odor disappears.

Kerosene is less dangerous, and its stains will evaporate with time or may be taken up by such absorbents as whiting, prepared chalk, starch, and the like.

Or use an equal mixture of turpentine and kerosene.

Or fill all cracks after oiling with hard yellow soap or putty.

Or with a soft, small brush go over. the bedstead, springs, and woodwork with a generous coating of hard oil varnish. Work this into all cracks and crevices, and your bedbug troubles will be over.

Or dissolve 2 pounds of alum in 3 or 4 quarts of boiling water, and apply hot from an oil can or with a brush to all crevices in furniture, walls, or floors where bedbugs harbor.

Or apply a weak solution of chloride of zinc.

Or apply with a brush equal parts of blue ointment and kerosene oil.