The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
First Aid For The Ailing Houses
All oily cloths should be destroyed, as well as other rubbish and material that might cause spontaneous combustion. All matches should be removed entirely or placed in tin or other mouseproof or fireproof boxes.
PESTS AND VERMIN
All food not in cans or sealed boxes should be disposed of j to prevent spoilage and to discourage insects. The garbage can should be emptied and scrubbed. All sugar should be placed in a tightly sealed can or thrown out.
Field mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and similar rodents should be kept out by closing all possible entrances (easier said than done, in many houses!); overhanging tree branches from which squirrels might reach the roof should be cut off. All cracks and openings should be covered or filled with sheet metal or cement. An accessible chimney top should be capped with screening, wired on, to keep out vermin.
Squirrels and chipmunks are likely to gnaw their way through a roof or other part. As a further means of keeping an empty house from them, several pounds of moth balls should be scattered in all parts: on beds, in closets, and over the floors of all rooms, with heavy emphasis on the attic. The animals dislike the odor and will not stay where it is present. An additional advantage of the moth balls is the protection they afford against most insects.
A suggestion for the protection of bedding in a closed cabin or summer home is to hang it over stout wires stretched the length of a room and out of reach of any part from which mice and other small animals might jump to it.
When moths, buffalo bugs, carpet beetles, and other destructive insects are known to be in the house, blankets, woolen clothing, etc., should be placed in tightly closed chests, with a pound or more of moth flakes, crystals or moth balls; rugs and carpets should be covered with flakes, rolled up, and wrapped in heavy paper.
FOILING BURGLARS
Whether the home owner is to be away from home only for a week or two, or for an entire season, there is always the danger of someone breaking in and ransacking the premises.
This danger can be minimized, however, by taking a few sensible precautions.
The windows of an isolated house to be closed for the season, particularly those of the basement and ground floor, should be covered with stout shutters secured from the inside. This is a simple matter with double-hung windows or sliding ones; with outswinging casements, the temporary removal of a pane of glass may be necessary to permit the passage of a long bolt from the shutter through a piece of two-by-four placed across the inside of the window opening.
