1899] RUST-RED FLOUR BEETLE. 55 



Fumigation by bisulphide of carbou is efficacious, but is dangerous 

 both with regard to its great inflammability, and also vunj be pre- 

 judicial to the operators ; but there are some broadscale methods of 

 treatment which would save a deal of loss if they ivere more attended 

 to, and which apply equally to the Rust-red Flour Beetles, and other 

 kinds also infesting flour. 



One of these is the " inspection, quarantining, and disinfection of 

 infested or suspected grain, bags, and machinery before storage" (see 

 'Insects Injurious to Stored Grain,' referred to in note, p. 54). From 

 enquiries sent to myself for some years past regarding cargoes of flour 

 or grain received at various of our British or Irish ports from various 

 parts of the world, I should say that attention to the first of the above 

 items ("inspection") as soon as possible on arrival, and by some one 

 interested in the matter, and able to distinguish one kind of insect presence 

 from another, would often save a deal of subsequent trouble, also risk 

 of loss from continuance of damage in the material, and likewise of 

 spread of the infestation. In the case of the TriboUum ferrugineum 

 beetles under consideration, they have ample wings, and could distri- 

 bute themselves to anything liable to their infestation near at hand. 

 "Quarantining" would be a preservative from this especial form of 

 trouble; but with regard to the consignees or owners of the material, 

 a skilled inspection of conditions of stores, sheds, or goods on the docks 

 adjacent to where the barrels, bags, or other packages were to be 

 placed would be highly desirable. 



In a communication sent me a few years back regarding not much 

 under a hundred barrels of flour, which consequently on beetle pre- 

 sence had to be emptied, sieved, and repacked, we found on investigation 

 at the docks that a quantity of material next to which the flour was 

 stored was swarming with the same insects. As the amount of beetles 

 in my correspondent's eighty-five barrels was only sufficient to make 

 sieving necessary to avoid a breach of regulations, it was presumable 

 that the infestation arose from the "swarms" sheltered close by. The 

 conditions of samples of infested cargoes on which I am consulted 

 show, in some instances (taken together with the observations fur- 

 nished), beyond all duuht, that the flour, or grain, was shipped in an 

 infested state, or was packed on shipboard with material so infested 

 with the "pest" (whatever it might be) on the "dunnage," &c., that 

 the cause of the mishief demonstrabiij was present in the commencement 

 of the transmission of the cargo. In other instances, for want of 

 examination on arrival (before the consignment had been exposed to 

 possibility of home infestation), there was hardly any way of arriv- 

 ing at certainty when the mischief began, consequently on whose 

 shoulders the pecuniary loss should rest ; and in cases of this kind, 

 where referred after lapse of weeks to skilled investigation, the trouble 



