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[Narrator:] This is a greatly enlarged view of the common housefly.
This is the cockroach.
And this is the bedbug.
You may not recognize them as they are shown here.
But you may have met them in the barracks,
in the kitchen or mess hall, and at mealtimes.
The cockroach, the bedbug, and the house fly are called household insects
because they infest places of human habitation,
ruining sleep and efficiency,
destroying food,
and carrying filth and disease.
It is the duty of the medical department to investigate insect infestations
and to inspect insect control measures that are carried out by personnel of the Corps of Engineers.
Control of household insects in military establishments is based upon thorough sanitation
and upon scientific use of an insecticide known as DDT.
DDT is particularly useful because of its physical properties of stability and solubility.
It is easily mixed with kerosene or fuel oil
and forms a clear, stable solution.
In this form it has the advantage of leaving no noticeable residue.
Although in its pure form DDT cannot be mixed with water,
when combined with a wetting agent it enters easily into a suspension with water.
DDT acts as a nerve poison and is highly effective against all household insects.
A container treated with DDT is death, slow but sure, to flies.
With mosquitoes in the same container, the effect is identical.
DDT will continue to knock out insects for months after application.
Roaches in the same container meet a similar fate.
Many different types of equipment are used in insect control.
However, these are the ones most often employed against household insects.
DDT is issued in both liquid and powder form for use in sprayers and dusters.
Each post should stock at least 45 days supply of both types of DDT.
The three-gallon sprayer is used with the standard five percent solution of DDT in kerosene.
It can be used with the wettable DDT in water, depending upon the type of treatment required.
To allow enough room for sufficient air pressure, don't fill the tank too full.
You'll get the best results when an operating pressure of 25 to 30 pounds is maintained.
The five percent DDT solution is also used in applicators for treatment of screened windows and doors.
The duster is used with 10 percent DDT powder.
Here is the complete arsenal of insect control equipment:
respirator and gloves for your own protection,
bulb and plunger-type dusters,
screen applicators,
and the three gallon sprayer.
With these few pieces of equipment you can control all household insects.
Concentrate on control of bedbugs during the winter months, leaving the rest of the year for warm weather insects.
The bedbug is a sociable insect, a lover of blood and warmth found wherever humans sleep.
Even the best-kept barracks is not immune.
The bedbug is a nocturnal insect and feeds on human blood. The spots on this sheet show it has been active here.
It breeds and hides by day in cracks and crevices adjoining the beds.
Its harbors can be identified by the traces of excrement.
The bedbug may also live in the seams and the edges of mattresses.
Bedsprings and bedsteads offer nesting space for these insects.
A single bedbug lays as many as 500 eggs in a lifetime and in three months may have up to 20 thousand descendants.
The occupants of the barracks prepare in advance for insect control,
opening the windows, pulling the bunks out away from the wall,
stripping the mattresses and pillows and putting in the aisle all shoes, clothes, bedding,
rubber goods, and other material which might be harmed by the spray.
And now you're ready to go.
Treat the wall surfaces using the nozzle, which produces a fan-shaped spray.
Hold the nozzle close enough to the surface to produce a wet coating without mist or fog.
If the nozzle is held too far away, most of the spray does not reach the surface.
If the nozzle is held too close the spray forms drops and runs off.
A medium wet spray leaves an even covering and a uniform crystalline deposit.
This is the way it should look.
This residue properly placed is the key to control of household insects.
One quart of liquid DDT when properly applied will cover 250 square feet of wall surface.
Spray the walls to a height of at least three feet above the level of the mattress,
covering all cracks around joints and timbers which might offer harbor to the bugs.
Now take care of the beds. Spray the coil springs and the mattress edge. Don't bother with the flat surfaces of the mattress.
Spray methodically and thoroughly.
This barracks should remain a pleasant place to sleep for a year or more.
A well-kept mess is less likely to become infested with roaches than one in which sanitation is neglected.
However, even the best-kept mess must be treated regularly against infestation.
Before treatment, mess personnel make all the necessary preparations.
Removing stores from shelves and cabinets to uncover cracks and sheltered places where roaches live and breed.
Removing or covering all goods which might be harmed by the spray.
Upending tables and other movable furniture, and that means everything.
The kitchen fires must be out several hours in advance.
The kerosene spray is dangerous around open flame or hot surfaces.
Mess personnel clean out beneath fixed furniture such as stoves, iceboxes, and work surfaces,
and put all dishes, pots, pans, and other containers where they will be protected from contamination.
Sanitation is their part in helping the program of insect control.
And now the mess hall is ready for treatment.
No smoking is permitted during spray treatments. This rule must be observed as long as the kerosene fumes are present.
Turn off all electricity as an added precaution against short circuits and possible fire.
Here the method of spraying is the same as for bedbugs, only the breeding and hiding places are different.
Roaches form little clusters or colonies in cracks, crevices, and in warm, dark, protected places
generally around the lower half of the room.
Large roach colonies are found around moisture and warmth.
Of all types of food, starchy ones are the most attractive to roaches.
Treat all the places where flour and crumbs collect. This is a good example, a bread storage cabinet.
Or beneath the kitchen work tables.
Or under the tables in the mess hall.
Okay, now that much of the job's finished, as far as you're concerned that is, here's where the mess personnel take over again.
Mess personnel should be particularly careful to inspect all equipment, produce, and other material before it is put in place.
It may bring roaches with it.
Roaches often hitch a ride on just this sort of thing.
Roaches are the most difficult of the household insects to exterminate completely.
Constant vigilance is necessary with an occasional spot treatment when roaches are found.
Spot treatment and general sanitation are the responsibility of the mess personnel.
If ants are discovered during the period between regular insect control measures,
a spot treatment of the ant run and the point of entry will take care of them.
After a few days it's a good practice to give the mess area a follow-up treatment with ten percent DDT powder.
Dusting is a check on the previous spray treatment.
Moreover, it gives you a chance to get the places you couldn't treat with kerosene spray for fear of fire.
Use the plunger-type duster to reach otherwise inaccessible points,
and for general or over-treatment.
A thin layer is sufficient.
The fly presents a different and more complicated problem.
It breeds on filth, feeds on filth, carries filth with it wherever it goes.
It abounds wherever rotten or decaying materials are found.
From these breeding points, the adult fly spreads filth and disease for a thousand yards or more.
The eating habits of the adult fly are no more pleasant than its breeding habits.
From here the fly may travel to human food,
carrying with it the germs of dysentery, cholera,
diarrhea, and typhoid fever.
There are four rules for fly control. First destroy its breeding places. Control it at its source.
Flies often breed in great numbers in stables on or near the post.
But not only in the stable itself.
Outside the stable, in and around the manure pile, and in any other place where decaying matter is found.
So spray the compost pile regularly
and the surrounding beams and timbers.
Here you may use DDT in water suspension as the visible residue will not be objectionable.
Before spraying with DDT in water, remember to agitate the sprayer tank to keep the DDT in suspension.
In treating the stable you not only take care of the common housefly, but other species as well. That makes for a better stable.
The second rule of flight control is treat the way stations at which flies stop for food.
Garbage racks will draw flies for hundreds of yards around.
Garbage should be removed at least once daily either by the army or by an approved contractor.
The garbage must be properly disposed of.
A sanitary fill is the preferred method.
Garbage cans should be cleaned immediately after disposal of the contents, whether in a modern steam unit like this one,
or in the old-fashioned way with the bucket and water.
Don't expect DDT to substitute for proper sanitation.
A garbage rack can easily become a breeding point and a way station for flies.
Keep it clean and spray it at regular intervals.
The garbage rack should be built with drains to carry off washwater and spilled garbage.
Not all garbage racks are constructed with adequate drains. In this case the water runs off from the rack,
polluting the soil with organic matter and forming a perfect medium for fly-breeding.
So spray the general area around the garbage depot
covering not only the ground but the walls and the garbage cans themselves.
Now the third rule of fly control, a very simple one: keep 'em out.
Doors and windows must be thoroughly screened.
All screen doors should open outward to make it more difficult for the flies to enter.
For treating screens, several types of screen applicators are available.
A good application of DDT will make both sides of the screen sure death to flies.
Two men can treat all the screens of a mess hall in about 20 minutes.
The brush and roller types shown here require approximately one quart of five percent DDT in kerosene
to treat sixty to eighty screens.
One treatment of screens will continue to kill flies for one or two months.
The fourth and last rule of fly control is kill them when they do get in.
In fly control it isn't necessary to produce an all-over fog or to contact the insects directly.
Just deposit a good residue on the places where the flies tend to rest.
Their resting places are generally high, above waist level on braces, trusses, uprights, shelf edges.
Flies almost always alight on angles and protruding edges where they can see in both directions.
Look around for fly specks; they'll help you to identify their resting places.
They very often rest on the pull cords of lights and other dangling things.
Don't, however, spray electric wiring light switches or lighted lamps.
When you have finished your work, look around to make sure that every point has been covered.
An insect-free mess hall is essential to the welfare and health of the camp as a whole.
A well-kept barracks and a well-kept mess
are a check and a double check
for efficiency, morale, and health.
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