Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 25

ORDER VIII.

HETEROPTERA.

Cimicidae--Bed-bugs.

"In the year 1503," says Moufet, "Dr. Penny was called in great haste to a little village, called Mortlake, near the Thames, to visit two n.o.ble ladies (_duas n.o.biles_), who were much frightened by the appearance of bug-bites (_ex cinic.u.m vestigiis_), and were in fear of I know not what contagion; but when the matter was known, and the insects caught, he laughed them out of all fear."[911]

This fact disproves the statement of Southall, that the _Cimex lectularius_ was not known in England before 1670, and that of Linnaeus, and the generality of later writers, that this insect is not originally a native of Europe, but was introduced into England after the great fire of London in 1666, having been brought in timber from America.

The original English names of the _C. lectularius_, were _Chinche_, _Wall-louse_, and _Punaise_ (from the French); and the term _Bug_, which is a Celtic word, signifying a ghost or goblin, was applied to them after the time of Ray,[912] most probably because they were considered as "terrors of the night."[913]

In the Nicholson's Journal[914] there is mention of a man who, far from disliking Bed-bugs, took them under his protecting care, and would never suffer them to be disturbed, or his bedsteads removed, till in the end they swarmed to an incredible degree, crawling up even the walls of his drawing-room; and after his death millions were found in his bed and chamber furniture.

Gemelli, in 1695, visited the Banian hospital at Surat, and says that what amazed him most, though he went there for that express purpose, was to see "a poor wretch, naked, bound down hands and feet, to feed the Bugs or Punaises, brought out of their stinking holes for that purpose."[915]

Mr. Forbes, speaking of this remarkable inst.i.tution for animals, says: "At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats and mice, Bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pa.s.s a night among the Fleas, Lice, and Bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without molestation."[916]

Navarette says that a species of Bugs (most probably a _Cimex_), which swarm in some parts of China, are a source of great amus.e.m.e.nt to the natives; for they take particular delight in killing them with their fingers, and then clapping them to their noses.[917]

Democritus says that the feet of a hare, or of a stag, hung round the feet of the bed at the bottom of the couch, does not suffer Bugs to breed; but, in traveling, Didymus adds, if you fill a vessel with cold water and set it under the bed, they will not touch you when you are asleep.[918]

A superst.i.tion prevails among us that beds, in order to rid them effectually of Bugs, must be cleaned during the dark of the moon.

The medicinal virtues of the Cimex are given by Pliny (doubtless quoting Dioscorides, ii. 36) as follows: "The Bug is said to be a neutralizer of the venom of serpents, asps in particular, and to be a preservative against all kinds of poisons. As a proof of this, they tell us that the sting of an asp is never fatal to poultry, if they have eaten Bugs that day; and that, if such is the case, their flesh is remarkably beneficial to persons who have been stung by serpents. Of the various recipes given in reference to these insects, the least revolting are the application of them externally to the wound, with the blood of a tortoise; the employment of them as a fumigation to make leeches loose their hold; and the administering of them to animals in drink when a leech has been accidentally swallowed. Some persons, however, go so far as to crush Bugs with salt and woman's milk, and anoint the eyes with the mixture; in combination, too, with honey and oil of roses, they use them as an injection for the ears. Field-bugs, again, and those found upon the mallow (perhaps the _Cimex pratensis_ is meant here; neither this nor the _Cimex juniperinus_, the _C. bra.s.sicae_, or the _Lygaeus hyoscami_, has the offensive smell of the _C. lectularius_) are burnt, and the ashes mixed with oil of roses as an injection for the ears.

"As to the other remedial virtues attributed to Bugs for the cure of vomiting, quartan fevers, and other diseases, although we find recommendations given to swallow them in an egg, some wax, or in a bean,[919] I look upon them as utterly unfounded, and not worthy of further notice. They are employed, however, for the treatment of lethargy, and with some fair reason, as they successfully neutralize the narcotic effects of the poison of the asp; for this purpose seven of them are administered in a cyathus of water; but in the case of children, only four. In cases, too, of strangury they have been injected into the urinary channel.[920] So true it is that nature, that universal parent, has engendered nothing without some powerful reason or other. In addition to these particulars, a couple of Bugs, it is said, attached to the left arm in some wool that has been stolen from the shepherds, will effectually cure nocturnal fevers; while those recurrent in the daytime may be treated with equal success by inclosing the Bugs in a piece of russet-colored cloth."[921]

Guettard, a French commentator on Pliny, recommends Bugs to be taken internally for hysteria; and Dr. James says "the smell of them relieves under hysterical suffocations!"[922]

At the present time the Bed-bug is sometimes given by the country people of Ohio as a cure for the fever and ague.

Moufet says: "The verses of Quintus Serenus show that they are good for tertian agues:

Shame not to drink three Wall-lice mixt with wine, And garlick bruised together at noon-day.

Moreover a bruised Wall-louse with an egg, repine Not for to take, 'tis loathsome, yet full good I say.

"Gesner in his writings confirms this experiment, having made trial of it among the common and meaner sort of people in the country. The ancients gave seven to those that were taken with a lethargy, in a cup of water, and four to children. Pliny and Serenus consent to this in these verses:

Some men prescribe seven Wall-lice for to drink, Mingled with water, and one cup they think Is better than with drowsy death to sink."[923]

Anatolius says that if an ox, or other quadruped, swallows a leech in drinking, having pounded some Bugs, let the animal smell them, and he immediately throws up the leech.[924]

Mr. Mayhew, in his work on the London poor and their labor, has an interesting chapter devoted to the Destroyers of Vermin, from which we have taken the liberty of quoting pretty largely in the course of this work. His statements can be relied on, and we give them as nearly in his own words as possible. Concerning Bugs and Fleas, and the trade carried on in the manufacture and vending of poisons to destroy these pests, we learn from him: The vending of bug-poison in the London streets is seldom followed as a regular source of living. He has met with persons who remembered to have seen men selling packets of vermin poison; but to find out the venders themselves was next to an impossibility. The men seem to take merely to the business as a living when all other sources have failed. All, however, agree in acknowledging that there is such a street trade; but that the living it affords is so precarious that few men stop at it longer than two or three weeks.

The most eminent firm, perhaps, of the bug-destroyers in London now is that of Messrs. Tiffin and Son. They have pursued their calling in the streets, but now rejoice in the t.i.tle of "Bug-Destroyers to Her Majesty and the Royal Family."

Mr. Tiffin, the senior party in this house, kindly obliged Mr. Mayhew with the following statement. It may be as well to say that Mr. Tiffin appears to have paid much attention to the subject of Bugs, and has studied with much earnestness the natural history of this vermin. He said:

"We can trace our business back as far as 1695, when one of our ancestors first turned his attention to the destruction of bugs. He was a lady's stay-maker--men used to make them in those days, though, as far back as that is concerned, it was a man that made my mother's dresses.

This ancestor found some bugs in his house--a young colony of them, that had introduced themselves without his permission, and he didn't like their company, so he tried to turn them out of doors again, I have heard it said, in various ways. It is in history, and it has been handed down in my own family as well, that bugs were first introduced into England, after the fire in London, in the timber that was brought for the rebuilding of the city, thirty years after the fire, and it was about that time that my ancestor first discovered the colony of bugs in his house. I can't say whether he studied the subject of bug-destroying, or whether he found out his stuff by accident, but he certainly _did_ invent a compound which completely destroyed the bugs, and, having been so successful in his own house, he named it to some of his customers who were similarly plagued, and that was the commencement of the present connection, which has continued up to this time.

"At the time of the illumination for the Peace, I thought I must have something over my shop, that would be both suitable for the event and to my business; so I had a transparency done, and stretched on a big frame, and lit up by gas, on which was written

MAY THE DESTROYERS OF PEACE BE DESTROYED BY US.

TIFFIN & SON, BUG-DESTROYERS TO HER MAJESTY.

"Our business was formerly carried on in the Strand, where both my father and myself were born; in fact, I may say I was born to the bug business.

"I remember my father as well as possible; indeed, I worked with him for ten or eleven years. He used, when I was a boy, to go out to his work killing bugs at his customers' houses with a sword by his side and a c.o.c.ked-hat and bag-wig on his head--in fact, dressed up like a regular dandy. I remember my grandmother, too, when she was in the business, going to the different houses, and seating herself in a chair, and telling the men what they were to do, to clean the furniture and wash the woodwork.

"I have customers in our books for whom our house has worked these 150 years; that is, my father and self have worked for them and their fathers. We do the work by contract, examining the house every year.

It's a precaution to keep the place comfortable. You see, servants are apt to bring bugs in their boxes; and, though there may be only two or three bugs perhaps hidden in the woodwork and the clothes, yet they soon breed if let alone.

"We generally go in the spring, before the bugs lay their eggs; or, if that time pa.s.ses, it ought to be done before June, before their eggs are hatched, though it's never too late to get rid of a nuisance.

"I mostly find the bugs in the bedsteads. But, if they are left unmolested, they get numerous and climb to the tops of the rooms, and about the corners of the ceilings. They colonize anywhere they can, though they're very high-minded and prefer lofty places. Where iron bedsteads are used, the bugs are more in the _rooms_, and that's why such things are bad. They don't keep a bug away from a person sleeping.

Bugs'll come if they're thirty yards off.

"I knew a case of a bug who used to come every night about thirty or forty feet--it was an immense large room--from the corner of the room to visit an old lady. There was only one bug, and he'd been there for a long time. I was sent for to find him out. It took me a long time to catch him. In that instance I had to examine every part of the room, and when I got him I gave him an extra nip to serve him out. The reason why I was so bothered was, the bug had hidden itself near the window, the last place I should have thought of looking for him, for a bug never, by choice, faces the light; but when I came to inquire about it, I found that this old lady never rose till three o'clock in the day, and the window-curtains were always drawn, so that there was no light like.

"Lord! yes, I am often sent for to catch a single bug. I've had to go many, many miles--even 100 or 200--into the country, and perhaps only catch half a dozen bugs after all; but then that's all that are there, so it answers our employer's purpose as well as if they were swarming.

"I work for the upper cla.s.ses only; that is, for carriage-company and such like approaching it, you know. I have n.o.blemen's names, the first in England, on my books.

"My work is more method; and I may call it a scientific treating of the bugs rather than wholesale murder. We don't care about the thousands, it's the last bug we look for, whilst your carpenters and upholsterers leave as many behind them, perhaps, as they manage to catch.

"The bite of the bug is very curious. They bite all persons the same (?); but the difference of effect lies in the const.i.tutions of the parties. I've never noticed that a different kind of skin makes any difference in being bitten. Whether the skin is moist or dry, it don't matter. Wherever bugs are, the person sleeping in the bed is sure to be fed on, whether they are marked or not; and as a proof, when n.o.body has slept in the bed for some time, the bugs become quite flat; and, on the contrary, when the bed is always occupied, they are round as a lady-bird.

"The flat bug is more ravenous, though even he will allow you time to go to sleep before he begins with you; or at least till he thinks you ought to be asleep. When they find all quiet, not even a light in the room will prevent their biting; but they are seldom or never found under the bedclothes. They like a clear ground to get off, and generally bite round the edges of the nightcap or the nightdress. When they are found _in_ the bed, it's because the parties have been tossing about, and have curled the sheets round the bugs.

"The finest and fattest bugs I ever saw were those I found in a black man's bed. He was the favorite servant of an Indian general. He didn't want his bed done by me; he didn't want it touched. His bed was full of 'em, no beehive was ever fuller. The walls and all were the same, there wasn't a patch that was not crammed with them. He must have taken them all over the house wherever he went.

"I've known persons to be laid up for months through bug-bites. There was a very handsome fair young lady I knew once, and she was much bitten about the arms, and neck, and face, so that her eyes were so swelled up she couldn't see. The spots rose up like blisters, the same as if stung with a nettle, only on a very large scale. The bites were very much inflamed, and after a time they had the appearance of boils.

"Some people fancy, and it is historically recorded, that the bug smells because it has no vent; but this is fabulous, for they _have_ a vent. It is not the human blood neither that makes them smell, because a young bug who has never touched a drop will smell. They breathe, I believe, through their sides; but I can't answer for that, though it's not through the head. They haven't got a mouth, but they insert into the skin the point of a tube, which is quite as fine as a hair, through which they draw up the blood. I have many a time put a bug on the back of my hand, to see how they bite; though I never felt the bite but once, and then I suppose the bug had pitched upon a very tender part, for it was a sharp p.r.i.c.k, something like that of a leech-bite.

"I once had a case of lice-killing, for my process will answer as well for them as for bugs, though it's a thing I never should follow by choice. Lice seem to harbor pretty much the same as bugs do. I find them in the furniture. It was a nurse that brought them into the house, though she was as nice and clean a looking woman as ever I saw. I should almost imagine the lice must have been in her, for they say there is a disease of that kind; and if the tics breed in sheep, why should not lice breed in us? for we're but live matter, too. I didn't like myself at all for two or three days after that lice-killing job, I can a.s.sure you; it's the only case of the kind I ever had, and I can promise you it shall be the last.

"I was once at work on the Princess Charlotte's own bedstead. I was in the room, and she asked me if I had found anything, and I told her no; but just at that minute I _did_ happen to catch one, and upon that she sprang up on the bed, and put her head on my shoulder, to look at it.

She had been tormented by the creature, because I was ordered to come directly, and that was the only one I found. When the Princess saw it, she said, 'Oh, the nasty thing! That's what tormented me last night; don't let him escape.' I think he looked all the better for having tasted royal blood.

"I also profess to kill beetles, though you never can destroy them so effectually as you can bugs; for, you see, beetles run from one house to another, and you can never perfectly get rid of them; you can only keep them under. Beetles will sc.r.a.pe their way and make their road round a fire-place, but how they go from one house to another I can't say, but they _do_.

"I never had patience enough to try and kill Fleas by my process; it would be too much of a chivey to please me.