Man Versus Beast

Fifty years ago I was a young bride planning to rent an old Iowa farmhouse. My rural mother-in-law shared her successful bedbug remedy [“A Bedtime Preyer,” April].

She said: “Wash and air-dry all bedclothes. Center the bed in the middle of the room. Put each leg (bed leg) in a pail of turpentine. Don’t smoke. Sleep.”

Perhaps the vermin died running up to the feast; perhaps they died crawling down to their bedrooms. Having never needed this old-time advice, I’ll share for the future.