To Destroy Flies
Boil the parings of potatoes in a little water for an hour, skim them out, and boil the water down to a few table-spoonfuls. Sweeten with molasses, and turn on to plates. It is a deadly poison. Another method is to boil quassia chips to a strong decoction, sweeten and proceed as above.
Source: Household Hints and Recipes, Henry T. Williams
To Keep Flies Out of a Room
Put a few drops of oil of lavender on a sponge placed in a saucer of hot water. This will give out a scent which flies dislike. If you do not wish to try it in the house, put the sponge on a table on the porch if the flies are troublesome there.
Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames
To Get Rid Of Flies
Sprinkle all breeding places with a mixture of crude petroleum and water.
Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames
To Prevent Horses being Teased by Flies
Boil three or four handfuls of walnut leaves in a gallon of water, and before the horse goes out in the morning, bathe with it.
Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott
To Destroy Flies
Strong green tea, sweetened well, and set in saucers about the places where they are most numerous, will attract and destroy them. This plan is much to be preferred to the use of those horrible fly-papers, which catch the poor insects alive, cruelly torturing them while starving them to death.
Source: Cassell’s Household Guide
To destroy Cockroaches, Ants, and other household Vermin
Hellebore, rubbed over with molasses, and put round the places that cockroaches frequent, is a very effectual poison for them. Arsenic, spread on bread and butter, and placed round rat or mouse holes, will soon put a stop to their ravages. Quicksilver and the white of an egg, beat together, and laid with a feather round the crevices of the bedsteads and the sacking, is very effectual in destroying bugs in them. To kill flies, when so numerous as to be troublesome, keep cobalt, wet with spirit, in a large shallow plate. The spirit will attract the flies, and the cobalt will kill them very soon. Black pepper is said to be good to destroy them — it should be mixed, so as to be very strong, with a little cream and sugar. Great care is necessary in using the above poisons, where there are any children, as they are so apt to eat any thing that comes in their way, and these poisons will prove as fatal to them as to vermin, (excepting the pepper.) The flour of sulphur is said to be good to drive ants away, if sprinkled round the places that they frequent. Sage is also good. Weak brine will kill worms in gravel walks, if kept moist with it a week in the spring, and three or four days in the fall.
Source: The American Housewife