48 FLOUR MILLS AND STORES. 



be found, — whether in spouts and machinery, where they do no end of 

 mischief, both by destroying the silks, and stopping the flow of flour 

 in the spouts by spinning thin webs and hanging thereby, — " or by 

 getting into all crevices and every cranny where there is flour to feed 

 on." One characteristic point of the damage is the manner in which 

 the caterpillars spin the flour (amongst which they feed) together with 

 fine webs, so that it may be picked up in lumps or clots. The spaed 

 and thoroughness with which caterpillar possession is or may be taken, 

 is shown in the various extracts from the ' Canadian Report,' before 

 referred to, which are given in the following pages. 



It is not, however, only in open parts of mills or their machinery 

 that the pest is located. One of the very first observations of it in 

 this country was in connection with flour in sacks. In 1887, Mr. 

 Sidney Klein noted an attack in some large London warehouses where 

 there were over a thousand tons of flour stored, and one entire ware- 

 house was literally smothered with larvfe, and several hundred pounds 

 worth of damage done.* 



In a letter to myself, Mr. Klein noted they were not in the grain, 

 but only in the flour, and especially in any light fluffy or branny stuff, 

 and especially remarked, " My impression is that they have come to 

 me from some baker in returned empty sacks." Further, in his paper 

 before quoted (read to the Entomological Society), he mentioned that 

 the eggs, which seemed to be laid by the moths "generally upon the 

 top of the sack, hatched in a few days of being laid ; and the larvae, 

 (caterpillars) at once burrowing through the sacking, commenced 

 spinning long galleries in the flour, seldom, however, going more than 

 three inches from the exterior." — S. T. K. 



When the attack was first brought under my notice in 1888, I 

 suggested turning on steam. This was done, the mills were stopped 

 for a week, the machines were cleaned, and steam was applied by 

 carrying about forty yards of half-inch piping into the mill from the 

 boilers, and attaching an india-rubber bore to it, for the men to work 

 about on the walls, floors, spouts, and machines, blowing the steam 

 into all crevices and holes. This was followed up by washing the 

 inside of the machines with strong boiling solution of soda and water. 

 It was found that strong soda and water destroyed the maggot where 

 it could be applied to them. Walls were whitewashed, and paraffin 

 applied wherever it could be done without affecting the flour, even to 

 syringing likely places for the moths to settle in, and for the time much 

 good was done, but even with all the above expense and labour the 

 attack was not cleared, and recurred to give further trouble. 



* See paper by Mr. Klein, read before the Entomological Society of London on 

 Nov. 2nd, 1887. 



