270 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The bean weevil, besides laying its eggs in beans in the 

 field and developing there, also breeds in beans after 

 they are harvested and stored. In stored beans they 

 cause an immense amount of damage, often destroying 

 them for either food or seed purposes. It also breeds in 

 dried peas, causing similar injury. 



Stored beans may be protected from this weevil by the 

 use of carbon bisulfide or heat, as already described in 



the case of the grain weevils. 



The broad-horned flour-beetle 

 (Echoeerus cornutus) is occa- 

 sionally found in houses. In 

 Europe it is reported as a pest 

 in bakeries. It seems to get 

 into the flour and into the 

 dough that accumulates on the 

 *y- molds used in baking bread. 



The species does not seem to 



be widely distributed in the 



United States, although it is 



fairly common on the Pacific 



Coast. In California it occurs 



both indoors and outside under 



bark. It is, therefore, firmly 



established and acclimatized in that region. It has 



been reported from the Pacific Coast in all stages of 



development in ground cereals of the stores. 



The beetle itself, especially the female, resembles closely 

 the confused and the rust-red flour-beetles. The male, 

 however, possesses broad mandibular horns, that dis- 

 tinguishes it at once from the two flour-beetles mentioned. 

 The habits and food of the broad-horned flour-beetles 



Fig. 86. — Bean weevil. 

 (X 8.) 



