INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. IT 



THE MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH. 

 Ephcstia kuchnicUa, Zell. 



Millers have every reason to dread this insect, since it some- 

 times completely stops the machinery of a flour mill, and when 

 present always calls, sooner or later, for the expenditure of much 

 effort and much money before a mill can be free from its depreda- 

 tions. 



The fact that a mill is new is no safe-guard against contamina- 

 tion from returned sacks or the introduction of eggs of the pest 

 in second-hand machinery coming from an infested mill. Nor is 

 a clean mill exempt for the same reason, though regular cleanings 

 have much to do with checking its increase. 



In view of the lack of definite information upon. this subject 

 among many of our millers, who do not know the best means of 

 fighting the moth, and in consideration of the fact that it is a pest 

 which may appear sooner or later in any flour mill, the Entomolo- 

 gist has included here a chapter on the Flour Moth, fully illus- 

 trated, giving its life history, habits, and chief sources of infection, 

 the best remedies and means of prevention. 



My predecessor. Dr. Lugger, has never included this pest in 

 any of his bulletins. In April, 1900, he printed in the Northwest- 

 ern Miller a popular account of the insect, with illustrations. In 

 this article he advised fumigation with bisulphide of carbon, a pro- 

 cess which millers do not apparently find satisfactory. Since that 

 time .considerable advance has been made in our knowledge of 

 methods of control, which the present report aims to place before 

 the millers of the Northwest. There have been some experiments 

 on the part of the Entomologist bearing upon the effect upon the 

 insect and its eggs of exposure to certain temperatures for a defi- 

 nite length of time, upon the effect of liquid bisulphide of carbon, 

 and of the gas, upon the eggs, and upon the effects upon the larvae 

 of exposure to a known volume of the gas of C. S- for a definite 

 time. The colored plate, excellently true to life, was made under 

 the writer's direction, from actual specimens, as were the original 

 photographs which appear here. The best remedial and prevent- 

 ive measures have been obtained by interviews with practical 

 millers, who have used said measures successfully, the writer 



