5 



owners it is well known for the ravages it commits in the ship 

 biscuits, eating and breeding in them until they are utterly 

 destroyed. 



He also says that he has been informed that they were very 

 plentiful in the roof of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 

 where they were reported to have eaten through the sheet lead. 



In 1884 a very similar pest appeared in great numbers in the 

 boot and shoe warehouses in St. Louis, United States of America. 

 It attacked the boots in a very similar manner to our " leather 

 beetle," and not only made its way into the warehouses, but 

 also invaded the factories. They were locally known as " the dry 

 hide beetle." This beetle is a much larger insect, belonging to 

 the family Dermettida. Professor "Riley investigated the matter, 

 and identified it as the " Toothed Dermestes," Dermestes 

 vulpinus. (See the Entomologist's Report in the Annual Report 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1885.) 



This beetle has a world-wide distribution. D. vulpinus and 

 several other species are common in Australia, where they 

 do a good deal of damage among flour, dried bacon and ham, 

 while every year an immense number of sheepskins are destroyed 

 by this weevil getting into them. 



REMEDIES. "Where the Anobium has infested the trunks it 

 would be best to put them in a tight chamber ; the boots should 

 be turned out of the boxes into a malt tank or other receptacle, 

 and treated with bisulphide of carbon, kept in such a tight 

 chamber so that the fumes of the carbon could not escape too 

 rapidly, all larvae and beetles would be destroyed. The boxes 

 should be burnt, or treated in the same manner, as they are 

 sure to have eggs all over them, and if the eggs are left behind 

 the pest will be sure to appear sooner or later, and the work 

 will have to be done over again. 



Care should be taken in the warehouse that all rubbish and 

 waste is cleared out, and where the place is infested all such 

 rubbish should be carefully burnt. 



