iQio] Pediculoides Noxious to Man 31 



ing previous years had shown that the outbreak really began in 

 the more elevated portions of Virginia, in the upper Shenandoah 

 Valley, West Virginia and eastern Ohio, as early as 1904; after- 

 wards advancing broadly to the westward. 



During the summer of 1908, there came to the Bureau, from 

 this section of the country, a great number of complaints of serious 

 skin trouble among people engaged in threshing grain that had 

 been stored for some time in barns; in some localities it having 

 become difficult to secure help to thresh under such conditions. 

 Also the same disorder was encountered by those who used this 

 straw for the purpose of filling bed-ticks, or as a substitute for 

 felting under carpets, and in one case, berry pickers had been 

 attacked when such straw had been used as a mulch for berry 

 plants. This straw came from one of the fields most seriously 

 injured by joint worm attacks in 1908. In one instance, a car- 

 load of wheat straw was shipped to Pittsburg, Pa., and six men 

 engaged in unloading it, were all attacked by some skin eruption, 

 and the horses used in hauling this straw after it was unloaded, 

 also suffered from w^hat was seemingly the same disorder. Per- 

 haps the following from a correspondent of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, residing in southern Ohio, will give a fair idea of the 

 situation on many farms in that section of the country. 



" About four years ago a parasite was found when threshing 

 wheat out of barns. They seem to affect the victims almost as 

 soon as they get into the mow. The men began to scratch them- 

 selves generally on the neck and on the arms (inside) opposite the 

 elbow, and on the body back and front. They raised welts as you 

 describe and progress about as you describe. They have spread to 

 such an extent that farm hands dread and fear them and will not 

 change work with neighbors unless they thresh in the field. 

 (They are found out of barns.) Here of late they are found in 

 wheat straw in the barns, especially if baled. Last week a farmer 

 brought me baled wheat straw that seemed to be alive with them. 

 They attacked every one that went in the barn and one of my 

 horses that was perspiring from effects of a drive was simply 

 covered with little knots or swollen places and bit and rubbed him- 

 self continually. I had to have the straw hauled out and burned 

 and barn disinfected. The farmer stated that they were so thick 

 in the shed that contained the straw, that he had to keep all 

 stock out of the shed." 



