78 
injurious species to cultivated sunflowers, and as the ants encourage 
them, take good care of them, and place them upon fresh leaves, the 
ants themselves become thus indirect enemies to the plant. 
A kerosene emulsion spray is of course a perfectly efficient remedy. 
FUMIGATION WITH CARBON BISULPHIDE. 
3y W. E. HInps. 
U.S. DeparrMentr oF AGRICULTURE, 
Division oF EnromMoLoey, 
Washington, D. C., July 15, 1901. 
Str: I submit herewith a report upon the use of carbon bisulphide in the fumiga- 
tion of a large wholesale and retail tobacco establishment in Washington, D. C., 
together with some details of caution in its use and afew observations concerning the 
effects of this insecticide upon the user, which I have not found published hitherto. 
Respectfully, 
W. E. Hinps. 
Dr. L. O. Howarp, 
Chief of Division of Entomology. 
On the 13th of July, in accordance with your instructions, I visited 
this establishment and made a general investigation. ‘The business is 
confined to what is practically one large room, having about 3,000 
square feet on the ground floor and a cubical content of about 75,000 
feet. Ata height of about 12 feet a wide gallery runs around three 
sides of the room. This gallery, as well as the main floor, is filled with 
tobacco of various grades and styles of manufacture and in all kinds of 
packages. Altogether the stock consisted approximately of 800,000 
cigars, 400,000 cigarettes, and 37,000 pounds of smoking and chewing 
tobacco. Only a very small portion of the stock showed any signs of 
infestation, and this was stored partly in the gallery and partly on the 
- main floor. Several kinds of high-grade smoking mixtures (obtained 
mostly, as the proprietor informed me, from the same factory) were 
being seriously damaged by the cigarette beetle, Lastoderma serricorne 
Fab. It was stated that the beetles seldom appeared till the stock was 
about two years old, and the proprietors believed that the eggs were 
in the tobacco when it was packed, but that they remained dormant for 
a year or so more, developing abundantly toward the end of the second 
year. This, of course, is not the case. However, it may be possible 
that some stock was infested at the factory and the beetles subse- 
quently passed through several generations in the package before their 
presence was discovered, and it seems very probable, since the beetles 
have been quite abundant in the store for at least the past two years, 
that stock originally clean may have become infested in the store dur- 
ing the two years in which it was more or less exposed to infestation. 
A large number of the beetles were noticed in the store last year, 
and a small portion of the stock was at that time treated with CS,; but 
the fact that some of the old stock is now badly infested makes it 
appear very probable either that the first treatment was not sufficiently 
. 
