184 



THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



including crackers. In California it lives in ^he hives of honey 

 bees. 



Other Insect Enemies of stored wheat and its products are 

 the Indian-meal moth, the meal snout-moth, the flour beetles, 

 the meal worms and the grain beetles, which all occasion more 

 or less damage. As warm weather favors the rapid breeding of 

 all of these insects, the losses are enormous in the warmer 

 climates. In the single state of Texas, the weevils alone are 

 estimated to cause an annual loss to all grains of over $1,000,000. 



FLOUR MOTH: a, ADULT; &, PUPA; c, LARVA. ENLARGED 



Grain infested by the Angoumois grain moth may lose 40 per 

 cent in weight and 75 per cent in farinaceous matter in 6 



months. 



Remedies. Nearly all the insect enemies of stored gram have 

 parasitic or predaceous enemies, or both. Mites and spiders 

 prey on them, and several species of chalcis flies parasitize 

 them. In the field they are preyed upon by nocturnal insects, 

 birds and bats. Preventives and insecticidal remedies are 

 known. Bisulphide of carbon (one pound to one ton of grain 

 or to 1,000 cu. ft. of empty space) is the best insecticide, and 

 naphthaline the most effective deterrent. Hydrocyanic-acid 

 gas is used in fumigating mills to rid them of the Mediterranean 

 flour moth. Perhaps the largest operation of this kind ever 

 made was that of exterminating the moth in a six-story mill 

 and its warehouse, cleaning house, and elevator, a total of over 

 3 000,000 cubic feet of space. A ton of cyanide of potash and 



