The Cheyenne Daily Leader

BEATING THE BUGS.

The Operations of a Bug-Killer as

Described by a Professional.

Facts Concerning the Very Numerous

Croton-Bug—"Multiplication Is

Vexation, Division Is as

Bad."

Chicago Tribune.

A professional bug-killer, who is said to be

one of Chicago's bloated millionaires, was

interviewed by a Tribune reporter. "How's

business?" asked the reporter. "Booming,"

he replied; "never had a better season in our

life." In response to many questions the

bug man went on: "How do we kill 'em?

Well, some killers take a bug by the throat

and choke it till it puts out its tongue and

begs for mercy—but that's not our plan. It

isn't right to torture a poor bug that way.

Ah! you want some serious information;

very well, you shall have all I know. We

divide all insects into two classes, and have a

different kind of treatment for each class.

One class includes croton or water bugs,

cockroaches, and ants. The other includes

bedbugs, moths, potato-bugs, flies, mosqui-

toes, and all kinds of vermin that lives on

birds, animals or plants. The croton bug is

very numerous in this city, while the genuine

cockroach is rare.

THE CROTON-BUG.

The croton-bug will live on anything or

nothing—they will live for a year in an

empty house, but will not breed there. In

favorable circumstances they breed with

wondrous rapidity, becoming, it is said,

great-grandfathers every twenty-four hours.

Perhaps that's slightly exaggerated, though.

They live and thrive best in the heat around

heated pipes, and especially in hotel and

restaurant kitchens. Warm water is their

favorite beverage, and steam for a fancy

drink. Heat and wet combined are the con-

ditions most favorable to their propagation.

They don't deposit eggs like other insects, but

lay the eggs in a sack which hangs to their

tails and carry them about with them until

they are hatched; they then deposit the

whole sackful in a warm spot, where the

young bugs remain until they grow big. One

day, for curiosity, I made a prisoner of one

that I saw had its sack well loaded, and put

it under a glass; next morning the sack had

been dropped and I counted forty-two young

bugs in the deposit. I have seen millions on

millions of these young bugs heaped up in

some quiet spot under kitchen floors or be-

side a hot-water pipe. The female bugs seem

to be of a gregarious nature, and the whole

neighborhood seems to occasionally unite

in selecting a common dumping-ground for

their numerous progeny. Then in a few

days

the

progeny has families of its

own,

all

of

which

are

born

and

reared

in

the old

home-nest.

HOW THEY KILL THEM.

"Now as to the way we kill them." The

powder we use for this class is a chemical

compound, which they eat before any other

food. It is slow in operation, but always

effectual. When the powder is moistened by

being eaten it fills the insect with gas and

they die soon after. Now, a pound of this

stuff would not kill a bed bug, simply be-

cause a bed-bug would not eat it. The bed

bugs, fleas, etc., are killed by another and

much finer powder. They inhale it and it

suffocates them. It is perfectly harmless to

anything having lungs—those insects have

none, you know. For instance, I can blow

it over a canary until it is completely cov-

ered with a thick coating without injuring

the bird in the least, and at the same time in-

stantly killing any lice or other insects with

which it may be infested. If the croton-bugs

inhaled it it would kill them also, but they

can run too quick for it to have much effect.

It is instant and sure death to bed-bugs, lice,

and all small vermin. One day a tramp

came into the office here—the dirtiest looking

fellow I ever saw. He told me the condition

he was in, and said a man had sent him to

me. I gave him a half-pound box of the

powder, told him to get out of the office

quick, and then called after him telling him

how he was to use it. Well, he came in the

next day smiling. "That was lightning, that

was," he says. "I used it last night as you

told me, and there were 100,000,000 of them

there with their heels turned up this morn-

ing!"

A STORY.

"Hotels, laundries, bakeries, and restau-

rants are always pestered with the water or

croton bug—restaurant kitchens perhaps the

worst. And that reminds me of a story

about the big laundry man. He washes for

many of the leading restaurants, and among

others for Blank & Blank's. Of course you

know them—everybody does. I have a con-

tract with the laundryman to keep his place

clear of roaches, bugs, etc., and though the

work was easy I found that this restaurant

made it much bigger than it might have

been. With every basket of soiled things

there always came about a thousand bugs.

They kept the basket in the kitchen, and

threw in the napkins, tablecloths, towels,

etc., as they got soiled, and it's a poor napkin

that won't have a feast for 100 roaches on it

when the restaurant people are through

One day the laundryman handed me a letter

and told me to deliver it at the restaurant.

I did not do so; I sent it with a man.

CLEANING PRIVATE HOUSES.

"O, yes, I have a larger number of con-

tracts of that kind. I charge $5 or $10 for

cleaning a private house, and guarantee

it for a year, but they usually keep

free from the pest for a number of

years. It is about two or three hours'

work to clean an ordinary private house. Of

course detached houses keep clean longer, but

the cockroaches may get in laundry parcels,

baskets of groceries, etc., at any time. Some

hotels I have to go over every two months or

so. I got $150 last year from the Cook

county hospital, and I have cleaned the

county jail, state penitentiary, house of cor-

rection, and all the principal public buildings,

hotels, charitable institutions, etc., in the

city, or I might say in the west. O, yes, it's

a big business, the bug business.

AVERTING A STRIKE.

"Do you know, I once averted a strike in

the city. Yes, a big strike too. Not as big as

the telegraphers, but may be with as much

justice in it. You know —'s big seed stores?

Well, they keep over 300 girls there putting

up packets of seeds. They also used to keep

a staff of cats to protect the seed from mice

and rats. The cats kept a staff of fleas that

eventually grew to a standing army of enor-

mous proportions. In fact the whole store

swarmed with fleas from fifth floor to base-

ment. The girls—well, you'll have to guess a

good deal of the story. Anyhow, an indig-

nation meeting was held and a strike threat-

ened. The proprietor did not know what to

do. If it had been wages he could have fixed

it up, or if it had been the discharge of non-

union workers that was asked for he could have

complied. But he couldn't discharge the fleas.

They had an interest in the business, and

were determined to stick. Eventually I was

called in. I smothered the fleas and shot the

cats, and left the proprietor pleased and the

girls happy.

"GERMAN TOURIST."

The croton bug is the worst pest in libraries

doing more mischief than all other insects

common cockroach, and is commonly con-

founded with it. It was originally introduced

into this country from Europe, its stage

name being Blatta Germanica, which prob-

ably signifies "German tourist." Prof. Riley,

entomologist to the department of agricul-

ture, Washington, D. C., in a letter to Mr.

Weston Flint, the government librarian,

says:

"It (the croton bug) shows a decided preter-

ence for books bound in green cloth, and

seems to me to gnaw into and loosen the fibres

of the fabric solely for the purpose of getting

out the sizing or enameling. The worst of it

is that the pest attacks books in the best kept

libraries, and is indifferent whether the works

be old and musty or just from the bindery.

and the newly-hatched roaches get through

such a small crevice that it is very difficult to

get a bookcase tight enough to exclude them.

I have been able to discover no remedy be-

yond diligence and the use of a little pyreth-

rum occasionally sprinkled about the shelves.

Pyrethrum is perfectly harmless to the hu-

man system, though a powerful insecticide."