HOUSE PESTS

Camphor, a Remedy for Mice. Any one desirous of keeping seeds from the depredations of mice, can do so by mixing pieces of camphor gum in with the seeds.

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Camphor placed in drawers or trunks will prevent mice from doing them injury. The little animal objects to the odor, and keeps a good distance from it. He will seek food elsewhere.

Rats — To Drive away Alive.

If you choose to drive them away alive, take potash, pulverized, and put quite plenty of it into all their holes about the house. If the potash is pulverized and left in the air, it becomes pasty; then it can be daubed on the boards or planks, where they come through into rooms.

How TO Deal with Rats.

A writer in the Scientific American says : " We clean our prem- ises of these detestable vermin by making whitewash yellow with copperas and covering the stones and rafters in the cellars with it. In every crevice in which a rat may go we put the crystals of the copperas and scatter in the corners of the floor. The result Avas a perfect stampede of rats and mice. Since that time not a footfall of either rats or mice has been around the house. Every sjjring a coat of the yellow wash is given the cellar, as a purifier, and a rat exterminator, and no typhoid, dysentery or fevers attacks the family. Many persons deliberately attract all the rats in the neighborhood by leaving fruits and vegetables uncovered in the cellar, and sometimes even the soap is left open for their regale- ment. Cover up everything eatable in the cellar and pantry, and you will soon starve them out. These precautions, joined to the service of a good cat, will prove as good a rat exterminator as the ehemist can provide. We never allow rats to be poisoned in our dwelling, they are so apt to die between the walls and produce much annoyance."

To Destroy Bed Bugs, Moths, and Other Vermin.

Dissolve alum in hot water, making a very strong solution ; apply

to furniture or crevices in the walls with a paint brush. This is sure

destruction to those noxious vermin, and invaluable because easily

obtained, is perfectly safe to use, and leaves no unpleasant traces

360 HOUSE PESTS.

behind. When you suspect moths have lodged in the borders of carpets, wet the edges of the carpets with a strong solution; wheu ever it reaches them, it is certain death.

Hellebore, rubbed over with molasses, and put round the plac«* that cockroaches frequent, is a very effectual poison for them.

Arsenic, spread on bread and butter, and placed round rat or mouse holes, will soon put a stop to their ravages.

Quicksilver and the white of an egg, beat together, and laid with a feather round the crevices of the bedsteads and the sacking, ia very effectual in destroying bugs in them.

To kill flies, when so numerous as to be troublesome, keep cobalt, wet with spirit, in a large shallow plate. The spirit will attract the flies, and the cobalt will kill them very soon. Black pepper is said to be good to destroy them; it should be mixed, so as to be very strong, with a little crccim and sugar.

Great care is necessary in using the above poisons, where there are any children, as they are so apt to eat anything that comes in their way, and these poisons will prove as fatal to them as to ver- min (excepting the pepper).

The flour of sulphur is said to be good to drive ants away, if sprinkled round the places that they frequent. Sage is also good.

Weak brine will kill worms in gravel walks, if kept moist with it a week in the spring, and three or four days in the fall.

Cedar chests are best to keep flannels, for cloth moths are never found in them. Red cedar chips are good to keep in drawers, wardrobes, closets, trunks, etc., to keep out moths.

To Prevent Red Ants. Put one pint of tar in an earthen vessel, pour on it two quarts of boiling hot water, and place it in your closet.

How TO Get Rid of Flies. A clergyman, writing from Ireland, says: "For three years I have lived in town, and during that time my sitting room has been free from flies, three or four only walking about my breakfast table.

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while all ray neighbors' rooms were crowded. I often congratu- lated myself on my escape, but never knew the reason of it until two days ago. I then had occasion to remove my goods to another house, while I remained on for two days longer. Among other things moved were two boxes of geraniums and calceolarias, which stood in my window, the latter always being open to its full extent top and bottom. The boxes were not gone half an hour before my room was as full of flies as those around me. This, to me, is a new discovery, and perhaps it may serve to encourage others in that which is always a source of pleasure, and which now proves also to be a source of comfort, viz., window gardening."

Mosquitoes.

Mr. I vers "VV. Adams writes from Bathurst, N. B., to Forest and Stream, that he tried a dozen prescriptions for repelling mosquitoes, flies, and similar pests, and found none of them effective until he came across the following, which are dead sure every time:

"Three ounces sweet oil, one ounce carbolic acid. Let it be thoroughly applied upon hands, face, and all exposed parts (care- fully avoiding the eyes) once every half hour, when flies are troublesome, or for the first two or three days, until the skin is filled with it, and after this its application will be necessary only occasionally. Another receipt, equally eflicacious, is: Six parts sweet oil, one part creosote, one part pennyroyal. Either of these is agreeable to use, and in no way injurious to the skin. We have both of these in our camp with us, and all flies keep a safe distance."