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| Vincenzo Leonardi, Common Hoopoe (c. 1619) |
To repel flies, spiders, scorpions, and other animals from your house. Take hoopoe feathers, and burn them in the room, and when these animals smell the odor, they will leave, and never return, and this is proven.
De' Secreti del R. D. Alessio PiemonteseYou'll rest easy tonight in your pest-free, hoopoe-charred bedroom.
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| George Shaw, Zoological Lectures (1809), NYPL |
"With respect to caterpillars, snails, and slugs, they can only be gathered by hand, and the way to do this effectually is to begin as soon as they appear, employing women or children to look them over daily early in the morning. Poultry, and especially ducks and sea-gulls, are sometimes of use in keeping these and other insects under; a hen and chickens will devour caterpillars and aphides greedily, but are apt to scratch the soil afterwards, if not timely removed; turkey fowls are better."
John Claudius Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of GardeningFor pest control, try keeping a flock of women and children in your garden this year.
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| Edward Topsell, The History of Four-Footed Beasts (1658) |
"How to make a Receit, that neither Rat nor Mouse shall eat or gnaw of your Cheese. The Weasel, the Rat, and Mouse, are at such deadly hatred one with the other, as that, if you put the brain of a Weasel into the Rennets or Curds whereof you intend to make your Cheese, neither Rats nor Mice will ever come to taste or eat thereof."
Thomas Hill, Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions (1649)With this clever recipe, your cheese will finally be safe from the gnawing of vermin. Wait until after the cheese course, though, to tell your dinner guests the secret of your wondrous weasel cheese.
"Remember likewise, that they are a very subtle vermin, for if they in the least suspect what you are about, you cannot catch them... set your great cage out of the way at some distance that the other Rats may not hear them squeak, for that will baulk your sport and occasion them to run away."
Robert Smith, The Universal Directory for Taking Alive and Destroying Rats (1768)Dealing with an infestation of subtle vermin? Robert Smith offers a "method hitherto unattempted," in which you lure the little beasts into what looks like an exciting rat funhouse. Some assembly required.
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| Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1665) |
"Take an Earthen Platter, that is broad and shallow, fill it half full with Goats Blood, and set the Platter under the Bed, and all the Fleas will come into it like a swarm of Bees. Or take the Blood of a Bear or Badger, and put it under the Bed, as before, and it gathers the Fleas to it, and they die immediately."
R. W., A Necessary Family Book (1688)Just keep in mind that if you are going to invite any guests into your bedroom, you should probably move your miraculous flea-killing apparatus beforehand. A platter of bear's blood under the bed can be kind of a turnoff for some people.
"The smell of a goat is obnoxious to the nostrils of rats; the two wont be friends and companions on any account whatever, and the introduction of goats to one's barn or premises will cause an immediate stampede of all the rats."
A. E. Youman, A Dictionary of Everyday Wants (1872)If you follow this advice, the good news is that you'll get to watch an exciting rat stampede. The bad news is that your premises will be filled with obnoxious-smelling goats.
"Procure the hollow claws of Lobsters, Crabs, &c. and hanging them in different parts of the garden, the insects creep into them, and are easily taken; but the claws must be often searched."
The Complete Vermin-Killer (1777)The problem with this remedy is that you'll have to eat a lot of lobsters. Organic gardening is full of hardships.
"Spread Gun-powder, beaten small, about the crevices of your bedstead; fire it with a match, and keep the smoak in; do this for an hour or more; and keep the room close several hours."
The Complete Vermin-Killer: A Valuable and Useful Companion for Families, in Town and Country (1777)Oh, you want to kill the bedbugs without exploding your bed and reducing your neighborhood to a smoking pile of debris? Then you have never had bedbugs.
“If you have a room or floor in your dwelling infested with flies, take little sprigs of fern, tie them together with threads like tassels, hang them up, and all the flies will settle on them in the evening. Then take down the tassels and throw them outside… otherwise, tie a linen stocking to the bottom of a pierced pot and set the pot in the place where the flies gather and smear the inside with honey, or apples, or pears. When it is full of flies, place a platter over the opening, then shake it.”
Le Ménagier de Paris (ca. 1400)
