Nocturnal forays, part 2: on Demon traps
Elsewhere, Mellanby describes more closely these Demon cockroach traps, which he also used to trap cockroaches in the rat room to study their periodic activity:
Category: History
Nocturnal forays, part 1: Mellanby
Despite its disobliging disposition, the bed bug must eventually give up its secrets to researchers. This process is slow and apparently fraught with failure, but what is being learned is there for us to read and understand if only we … Continue reading
Even a flat with B.B’s is HOME if you are there, Old Sweetheart.
Wilbur A. Sawyer was an American tropical disease specialist. His wife, Margaret, was a bacteriologist who left her own career in medicine when they married. The family was relocating to New York City in the fall of 1924 but Dr. … Continue reading
Acts of forgetting
The scientific and technical literature is rich with opportunities to notice changes in the cultural thought and experience of bed bug infestations. And, beyond that, the “noise” introduced by the biases of authors is interesting all by itself. Observing the … Continue reading
Doomsday for Pests!
The following will make your day whole and make you feel happy. Guaranteed, or your money back.
An interview with Steven W. Smollens: law and history in NYC
Steven W. Smollens has practiced landlord and tenant law in New York City for 34 years.
WWII army barracks disinfestation photos
Well, maybe one more history post. The papers say the city is ready to do battle, more on what that might mean later. Of course bed bugs have always been a big deal. Eradicating them, a big production. We had … Continue reading
Johnson’s hut, now online
There are so many things I’ve wanted to write about in the time I’ve been away (and not just about historical research, heh).
Girault, cont’d
So there was that hotel stay in 1907—the attack, to use his word.
Girault and the bed bugs
Alexandre Arsène Girault checked into an elegantly furnished room in one of the best hotels in Cincinnati on October 29, 1907. It was close to midnight. Later he would have occasion to ask the hotel manager if anyone had slept … Continue reading