I 2 REPORT ON INJURIOUS INSECTS FOR 1905. 



Other species are often very abundant in the straw coverings 

 of wine bottles and straw mattresses. 



Marlatt records a case* in the United States, where " in a new 

 house, kept by very neat occupants, a mattress of hair and corn 

 husks, which had been purchased some six months before, was 

 found in September, after the house had been closed about six 

 weeks, to be so covered with these insects that a pin point could 

 not have been put down without touching one or more of the bugs. 

 The side of the lower sheet next the mattress was likewise covered, 

 and further search showed the walls, and, in fact, the entire house, 

 to be swarming with them. A sweep of the hand over the walls 

 would gather them by thousands; bureau drawers were swarming 

 with them, and they were under every object and in everything. 

 The mattress was found to contain millions of them, and seemed 

 to be the source of supply. 



The measures taken were most thorough. The mattress was 

 promptly removed; walls and floors were washed with borax and 

 corrosive sublimate solution; carpets were steam-cleaned; pyrethrum 

 was freely used; furniture was beaten, cleaned, and varnished, the 

 struggle being kept up for a year with all the persistence of an 

 extraordinarily neat housekeeper. The insect continued to have 

 the best of it, however, and persisted, though in diminished 

 numbers. 



The family then removed to a hotel, and for days the house 

 was fumigated with burning sulphur, and the scrubbing was 

 repeated. The insect was still not entirely exterminated, and the 

 house was vacated again and subjected to the vapour of benzine. 

 The insects, two years after the removal of the mattress, were 

 reported to be still in the house, greatly reduced, but to be found 

 in dark corners." 



REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



If on shelves, amongst books, in cabinets, etc., constant dusting 

 and exposure to fresh air and sunlight are the best measures to 

 take. If on wallpapers, the same will usually prove effective. 

 Where these fail, which is seldom the case in this country, dusting 

 book-shelves, etc., with pyrethrum powder will generally eradicate 

 the pest. 



THE PEA AND BEAN THRIPS. 



Thrips -pissivora. 



Complaints have been received of the damage done to peas 

 and scarlet-runner beans by the larvae of this tiny insect. 



In nearly all cases the insect attacks the blossom, with the 

 result that the pods are destroyed, or only stunted and distorted 

 ones develop. 



If a blossom is opened early in the spring, it will be found to 

 contain various stages of the insect. The female lays her eggs 



* Howard and Marlatt, U.S. Dept. Agric., Div. of Entomol.. 1902, Bull. 4, p. 80. 



