Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1908 — A BEDBUG EPIDEMIC. [ARTICLE]

A BEDBUG EPIDEMIC.

The Monticello schools were dismissed last week until Monday in | order to clear the school building i of bedbugs, with which it seems to have become infested. “Where they come from,’’ says the Journal of that place, “it is hard to say, but it is the general opinion that bats and swallows have colonized them in the big chimney and that the heat of the furnace . when it was started last week, started them to crawling out into the building. Some are of the opinion though, that their progenitors were snugly housed in the lumber used in the rebuilding of the school house, and that they have, been multiplying along from year to year, and that conditions have been unusually good this year for the propagation of the ‘varmits' until they had to set up a migration and seek for new worlds to conquer. “Be it as it may, the pesky things’ are there and the housewives of the town, as well as the teachers and pupils, are very much put out about it. The only consolation in the matter is that of the pupils who are getting the vacation. “AXter canvassing the situation carefully this forenoon, it was concluded that It would be the best policy to dismiss all of the schools until Monday, and go after the mgtter in a systematic way all over the Irailding. ,They are getting the upper hand of the critters and it is thought that they can be controlled now. “No time will be lost, as the teachers will take their visiting days now instead of later in the term.”