Report on the bed-bug.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the bed-bug. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/50 (page 40)
    Brooke, G. EH. (1915): Lancet, Lond., 189, 571. Contact insecticide in Singapore :—Carbon bisulphide 1, Kerosene 20, mix by shaking, then add “ Sanitas-sypol’’ 7, and keep in a stoppered bottle for use. Make 10 per cent. solution in water adding the water to the stock and not vice versa. Solution is milk white. It is best made up just before use as it deteriorates. Brown, E. W. (1933): U.S. Nav. Med. Bull., No. 3. An investigation on the use of ethylene oxide for destroying Bed-bugs and cockroaches on ships. The experiments were carried out with ‘“* Carboxide,”’ the trade name applied to a mixture of ethylene oxide and carbon dioxide, sold commercially in liquid form compressed in cylinders in the ratio of one part of ethylene oxide to nine parts of carbon dioxide by weight. 10 lb. of Carboxide contain 1 Ib. of ethylene oxide by weight, but the insecticidal results of 10 lb. of the mixture correspond roughly to 2 lb. of ethylene oxide, apparently as a result of acceleration of respiration. With Bed-bugs the action was often delayed and specimens apparently unaffected at the end of an experimental exposure were dead the next day. The adult cockroach is not more resistant to the gas than the Bed-bug, but owing to the protective shell the eggs of the cockroach are more resistant and a second fumigation at the end of 10 days may be required to destroy newly hatched insects. For destroying Bed-bugs and cockroaches in relatively air-tight spaces the following minimum concentrations per 1,000 c. ft. are reeommended :—5 lb. for 3 hours, 3 lb. for 6 to 12 hours and 2 lb. for 12 to 24 hours. The author was unable to study adequately the minimum time- concentration dosage of Carboxide necessary to destroy the eggs of the Bed-bug. He quotes, however, a personal communication from Dr. E. A. Back, of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, in which the opinion is expressed, “‘that a ‘““dosage of 8.8 oz. of ethylene oxide per 1,000 c. ft. with a 3-hour ‘*“ exposure, was lethal to Bed-bug eggs and to the various stages of “the adult. This dosage would be equivalent to 2.7 lb. of Carboxide ~ per. 1,000 c. ft.” Brue, 8. L. and VAN SLootEeNn, J. (1927): Mededeelingen van der Dienst der Volksgezondheid in Nederlandsch-indié, 16, 524. Spraying with kerosene containing 7 per cent. of carbon tetra- chloride and 34 per cent. of methyl salicylate failed to kill Bed-bugs in a native bamboo bed. ° CAMERON, J. (1923): China. Med. [Miss.] J., 37, 689. Found that a 5 per cent. solution of mercuric chloride (HgCl,) in 90 per cent. alcohol completely destroyed Bed-bugs in bedsteads. Canalis, P. (1916): Bull. Off. int. Hyg. publ., 8, 457. Clayton gas. CASTELLANI, A. and Jackson, T. W. (1915): J. Trop. Med., 18, 253. Kerosene oil was the best insecticide tried against Bed-bugs, then guaiacol. Pyrethrum was more effective against Bed-bugs than against lice. Sulphur fumigation was also tried. Cootny, R. A. (1914): Bull. Montana Agric. Expt. Sta., No. 102, p. 197. | Two applications of cyanide were needed to contro! a severe infesta- tion of Bed-bugs. CoRLETTE, C. E. (1916): Med. J. Aust., 1, 391. The use of cyanide against Bed-bugs.