How to Pest-Proof Your House, 1639

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 Piemontese

You’ll rest easy tonight in your pest-free, hoopoe-charred bedroom.