It is recommended to cover vessels, tie up waterskins, close doors and mention the name of Allah over them, extinguish lamps and fires when going to sleep, and keep children and animals in after maghrib

This hadith is reported on the authority of Laith b. Sa'd with the same chain of transmitters, but with a slight variation in wording (and that is that) he (the Holy Prophet) said: There is a day in a year when descends the pestilence; at the end of the hadith Laith said that the non Arabs save themselves from it in Kanun Awwal (this is the month of December).