Dissolve two pounds of alum in three or four quarts of water. Let it
remain over night till all the alum is dissolved. Then with a brush,
apply boiling hot to every joint or crevice in the closet or shelves
where croton bugs, ants, cockroaches, etc., intrude; also to the
joints and crevices of bedsteads, as bed bugs dislike it as much as
croton bugs, roaches, or ants. Brush all the cracks in the floor and
mop-boards. Keep it boiling hot while using.
To keep woolens and furs from moths, be sure that none are in the
articles when they are put away; then take a piece of strong brown
paper, with not a hole through which even a pin can enter. Put the
article in it with several lumps of gum camphor between the folds;
place this in a close box or trunk. Cover every joint with paper. A
piece of cotton cloth, if thick and firm, will answer. Wherever a
knitting-needle can pass, the parent moth can enter.
Place pieces of camphor, cedar-wood, Russia leather, tobacco-leaves,
whole cloves, or anything strongly aromatic, in the drawers or boxes
where furs and other things to be preserved from moths are kept and
they will never be harmed. Mice never get into drawers or trunks where
gum camphor is placed.
Another Recipe.--Mix half a pint of alcohol, the same quantity of
turpentine and two ounces of camphor. Keep in a stone bottle and shake
well before using. The clothes or furs are to be wrapped in linen, and
crumbled-up pieces of blotting-paper dipped in the liquid to be placed
in the box with them, so that it smells strong. This requires renewing
but once a year.
Another authority says that a positive, sure recipe is this: Mix equal
quantities of pulverized borax, camphor gum and saltpetre together,
making a powder. Sprinkle it dry under the edges of carpets, in
drawers, trunks, etc., etc. It will also keep out all kinds of
insects, if plentifully used. If the housekeeper will begin at the top
of her house with a powder bellows and a large quantity of this fresh
powder, and puff it thoroughly into every crack and crevice, whether
or not there are croton bugs in them, to the very bottom of her house,
special attention being paid to old furniture, closets, and wherever
croton water is introduced, she will be freed from these torments. The
operation may require a repetition, but the end is success.