INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MEATS 275 



"Inclosed you will find several bugs and larvse which 

 I found destroying our bacon. Will you please tell me 

 what they are, and if there is any way of preventing their 

 ravages ? Our meat was mostly put in heavy meat sacks ; 

 some was in muslin lined with paper, and a few pieces were 

 without either. The meat was encased in sacks about 

 the first of March and hung up in the garret. The sides 

 were free from them although without sacks. If there 

 is a remedy please let us have it." 



Probably, in this instance, the eggs were laid on the meat 

 before it was incased or the beetles found access to the 

 bacon through openings or cracks in the wrapping. 



Methods of control. — In the first place, the adult 

 beetles are easily seen and they may be caught by hand. 

 This is one way of dealing with them, and, in cases where 

 they are not too abundant, it may be the most satisfactory 

 and eventually the most effective. Cheese is very at- 

 tractive to the beetles and by exposing pieces of it here 

 and there they will congregate on them and may be caught 

 and killed by hand in considerable numbers. If this 

 method is followed up carefully for several days, it may 

 often prove effectual. 



If the beetles are abundant and there are many hiding 

 places, the room in which they are present should be 

 entirely cleared of food products and anything else that 

 may interfere with the work of cleaning. The store- 

 room should then be thoroughly cleaned and finally 

 sprayed with benzine or fumigated with carbon bisulfide 

 or hydrocyanic acid gas. 



Cheese ground up and poisoned with arsenic and then 

 placed in the haunts of the beetles will often kill many of 

 them. In putting away hams, and shoulders they 



