1914. To Exterminate Fleas

1914.    To Exterminate Fleas. Sprinkle chamomile flowers in the beds, and the fleas will leave.

1915. An Excellent Flea Trap

1915.     An Excellent Flea Trap. If you should happen to have the consciousness of having a flea about your person, you have but to introduce, before getting into bed, a piece of new flannel between the sheets, and you may depend on finding yourself forsaken for the flannel.

1916. To Prevent the Attacks of Gnats

1916. To Prevent the Attacks of Gnats. The best preventive against gnats, as well as the best cure for their stings, is camphor.

1917. To Clear a Room of Mosquitoes

1917.    To Clear a Room of Mosquitoes. Take of gum camphor a piece about 1/3 the size of an egg, and evaporate it by placing it in a tin vessel, and holding it over a lamp or candle, taking care that it does not ignite. The smoke will soon fill the room, and expel the mosquitoes.

1918. To Keep Away Mosquitoes

1918.     To Keep Away Mosquitoes. Dip a piece of sponge or flannel in camphorated spirits, and make it fast to the top of the bedstead. A decoction of pennyroyal, or some of the bruised leaves, rubbed on the exposed parts, will effectually keep off those troublesome insects.

1919. To Destroy Vermin in Children's Heads

1919.    To Destroy Vermin in Children's Heads. Take 1 ounce each vinegar and stavesacre, 1/2 ounce each honey and sulphur, and 2 ounces sweet oil. Make into a liniment, and rub the head with it. Insects are immediately suffocated by benzine. Those sometimes found in the heads of human beings are destroyed by it at once, without any inconvenient result being perceived. It has been employed very successfully in banishing the insects which infest domestic animals, etc. (See No. 1906 (To Kill Bed-bugs).) The use of larkspur seed for the destruction of the insects infesting the human head is a time-honored application among country people - beds of the plant being cultivated frequently for the express purpose of furnishing material for the decoction. The efficiency of this remedy seems to depend on the presence of the alkaloid called delphine, which appears to be a poison especially fatal to insects.

1920. To Destroy Body Vermin

1920.      To Destroy Body Vermin. Apply stavesacre ointment or red precipitate.

1921. To Clean Canary Birds

1921.    To Clean Canary Birds. These pretty things are often covered with lice, and may be effectually relieved of them by placing a clean white cloth over their cage at night. In the morning it will be covered with small red spots, so small as hardly to be seen, except by the aid of a glass; these are the lice, a source of great annoyance to the birds.

1922. Lice on Poultry

1922.    Lice on Poultry. If infested with lice, damp the skin under the feathers with water, then sprinkle a little sulphur on the skin. If the bird be covered with insects or parasites, they will all disappear in the course of 12 hours.