21 



wiuds, tlio cyg's will uot hatch, ami this pats an end to tlum ibr that year, with the 

 exception of a few scattering ones. Thus a dry and iiot Jul}'- and Angnst is always 

 a heavy crop year on the heavy, black, waxy prairie lands. Now I wish to know 

 ■whether we have adopted the best conrse for the destruction of the Boll Worm. Is 

 there any other conrse that has been successful in destroying them ? Any advice or 

 suggestions tliat you may choose to give us will be thankfully received. * * * 

 —[William Somerville, Bagwell, Red River County, Tex., .June 17, 1889. 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receii)t of yours of .June 17 in reference to the 

 damage done by the Boll Worm in your State. I can best answer your question by 

 sending you a copy of the Fourth Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission, 

 published iu 1885, and which you do not seem to have seen. You will find the Boll 

 Worm treated on pages 355 to 384. The destruction of the moths by trapping is not 

 a satisfactory remedy, for experiments have proven with other species that the great 

 majority of the insects so captured are either males, or females which have already 

 laid their eggs. The first business of the female moth after issuing seems to be to lay 

 her eggs, so that very few of them are caught in this way. The result is that other 

 remedies are of much greater avail. The suggestion regarding the worming of corn 

 while the first brood of worms is at work is a most excellent one, and the use of the 

 arsenical poisons as indicated upon page 381 also allfords a good remedy. The sugges- 

 tion upon page 380, that in localities where no corn is grown over a considerable 

 space it will pay to grow small patches here and there as traps for the early worms, 

 is also a good one. It will be unnecessary to elaborate further, as the iuformatiou 

 is all contained in condensed form iu this report. — [June 22, 1889.] 



A cosmopolitan Flour Pest. 



We send you herewith specinieus of insects which are breeding in our flour mill. 

 They seem to breed under basement floors and come up and fly away on warm days. 

 There seems to be a difference of opinion as to what they are, aud as there are no en- 

 tomologists in this section we would be pleased to have your opinion and whether or 

 not they will be likely to become a pest. They do nou seem to work in wheat bins, 

 but rather in flour dust in dark places. They breed all winter and spring and are now 

 very numerous. We have tried several remedies, but Persian insect powder is the 

 only thing that killed them. — [McPhersou & Stevens, Sprague, Wash. Ty., May 18, 

 1889. 



Reply. — Your letter of May 18 with accompanying specimens has been received. 

 The beetle which occurs iu your flour mill is Philetub' hifasciains, a cosmopolitan 

 species which feeds everywhere in flour and farinaceous products. Inasmuch as you 

 find that Persian insect powder kills them readily wo wouhl advise you to use it very 

 thoroughly .and to hold them in complete subjection, for otherwise they will doubt- 

 less become quite a pest with you. — [May 27, 1889. j 



Mites on a Neck-tie. 



1 send you in a tin box a neck-tie covered with Acari which a gentleman sends me 

 from San Francisco. He says the tie has lain iu a drawer and has been worn at in- 

 tervals. Ho first noticed the " foreign substance " two weeks ago and thought it sand 

 until he detected motion iu the particles. Wh.'^.t mite is it? How can garments be 

 best treated to get rid of it ?— [K. J. Wickson, Berkeley, Cal., May 25, 1689. 



Reply. — Yours of the 25th ultimo and mites duly received. We can uot distinguish 

 between the specimens found on the neck-tie aud the common Cheese Mite ( TijnxjUjphiiH 

 siro), aud there must have been soajethiug very peculiar about those neck-ties or else 

 the gentlemau who sent the specimens must have been a bachelor and have kept his 

 crackers and cheese in the same drawer with his clothes. The same mite, as you 

 know, is found in flour of all Icinds aud milk. Sulphur is the best remedy. Either 

 fumigate with burning sulphur or spriiikhi with flowers of sulphur mixed in water, — 

 [.Juiui 1, 1889.1 



