ENTOMOLOGY 345 



body. Most of these caterpillars spin a certain amount of silk, and 

 some of them live in regular silken tubes. One of the most common 

 species, the Indian-meal moth, which is only a little larger than 

 and is often mistaken for a clothes moth, attacks also dried fruits, 

 nuts and other vegetable products. Walnuts are not uncommonly 

 infested, and they have been found in boxes of figs from the Orient 

 and of prunes from California^ 



The same general recommendations that were made for the 

 other meal-worms apply to these as well. These meal moths, though 

 not often troublesome in the house, sometimes becomes veritable 

 pests in barns, mills, granaries and elevators, and require the most 

 active treatment for their destruction. This, however, is not a 

 point meant to be covered here. 



Larder Beetles and Skippers. Wherever smoked provisions are 

 stored in any quantity or for any time, or wherever cheeses are 

 stored, there is a tendency to attract a certain series of insects that 

 feed in the adult or larval stages on such materials. The skippers 

 are very small, slender maggots that move about actively and have 

 the habit of drawing themselves up into a loop, then springing for- 

 ward with a jerk that sends them for some little distance. It is 

 this habit that gives them their common name. They are found 

 in cheeses, especially when they get a little old and soft, and 

 in the fat of ham and bacon. Sometimes even the cased ham or 

 bacon received from the packing-house will be found infested, and 

 in pantries that are not kept clean the insects may develop in the 

 greasy matter on the shelves or in cracks and crevices. Hard cheeses 

 are not so liable to attack as the soft, fatty types, and those that 

 develop a distinctive odor are especially subject to attack. 



Tnese skippers are the larvae of small, brownish-gray flies, very 

 like the pommace flies in general appearance, and these flies lay 

 their eggs in little masses, whenever they find opportunity, on any 

 fatty material. It is the fat that they are after, not the meat, 

 and they do not impart any dangerous quality to the meat itself. 



Larder beetles are after the same type as the carpet beetles, 

 and belong to the same natural family, but they are much larger 

 and usually mottled with gray scales. Their larvae are hairy, 

 brown or blackish worm-like creatures, and feed on any sort of dry 

 animal product, smoked or fresh. They are not common in city 

 houses or pantries, but are very apt to be present in farm-houses, 

 where provisions are stored in larger quantity and for a longer 

 time. 



The larder beetles are so large that they are easily seen and 

 easily kept out of pantries by tight doors with small meshed wire 

 screens. But where their presence is noticed, it is better to trap 

 them, as otherwise they may lay their eggs as near to the food as 

 they can get, and the minute young can get through the screens 

 or the joints of the pantry doors. By placing a ham bone with 

 some scraps of adherent meat, or an old ham or bacon rind on a 

 shelf or box near the pantry, all the beetles will be attracted, be- 

 cause it is most accessible, and by looking under and on tin? trap 



