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64
and in the summer it is hotter than the rest of the house. In consequence ordinary
draping dries much too quickly, so in the roof space we have continued to use
blankets, nailing them to the rafters and joists.
The problem of the furnished house is not yet solved. We have dealt, of course,
with furnished houses by taking the furniture out and fumigating it in a van with
cyanide and treating the house as an empty house. Leaving furniture in situ,
however, the problem is much more difficult. More care has to be exercised in
erecting the framework in a furnished room. The furniture has to be moved to
the centre of the room and may have to be opened and tilted so that the vapour can
get to the contents and underneath. The delayed action sprayer presents further
difficulties as it cannot be allowed to discharge its contents over the furniture,
because the naphtha would run down non-absorbent surfaces and collect in pools on
the floor, from which evaporation would be slow. In order to get over this difficulty
we have tried what may be described as a small draped kiosk of tubing, 3 ft. 6 ins.
square base, and 7 ft. 9 ins. high, in addition to the ordinary draping round the walls.
The delayed action sprayer is placed inside the kiosk and discharges on to its draping
only. We have used it on three occasions—in two Council houses and in one slum
house. In the slum house it failed completely, because there was a great deal of
leakage. In the other two houses it was apparently successful, but in the course of
a fortnight a few young bugs were found in each house. These were dealt with by
local treatment.
The method, which appears somewhat elaborate, is not so elaborate as it looks,
once the disinfestors get used to it. It may be regarded as solving the problem of
the disinfestation of an unoccupied house using a fumigant non-toxic to humans. It
involves no destruction of house property and it does not damage paint. It leaves
an odour which is no more than one gets on clothing after it comes back from the
dry-cleaners.
Photographs illustrating the method appear on adjoining pages.
During the ensuing summer it should be possible to develop a technique for use
in furnished houses and if this be successfully effected a great advance in the eradication
of the bed-bug will have been made. The drawback to its use in furnished
houses is the necessity for the provision of places of temporary shelter.
(e) In addition to the above, 121 houses in Clearance Areas were disinfested
with a mixture of equal parts of orthodichlorbenzene and paraffin before demolition.
3. The methods employed for ensuring that the belongings of tenants are free
from vermin before removal to Council houses. The Sanitary Inspector in charge of
disinfestation inspects the furniture of all persons provisionally selected as tenants
for the Council's houses, decides when disinfestation is necessary and makes the
necessary arrangements. During the year he visited 489 houses in this connection.
In all cases where vermin are found, the removal is carried out under the supervision