THE FIG-MOTH 123 



larvae may be found on the fig-heaps or 

 crawling up the walls; a few pupate inside 

 the figs, and these probably produce the 

 few imagines found in the ' khans,' at the 

 port of shipping. The unpleasantness of the 

 larvae crawling all about the ship greatly 

 detracts from the pleasure of a voyage on a 

 vessel laden with Smyrna figs. 



With regard to preventive measures, there 

 seems in many parts of Asia Minor to be 

 two crops of figs — one in May and June and 

 one later. The former produces a large, 

 watery fig, unfit for sale. It is left to rot 

 on the ground, but it serves as food for the 

 larvae which will produce the myriad swarms 

 of moths in the early autumn. Obviously 

 these worthless figs should be destroyed as 

 completely as possible. Equally obvious are 

 the suggestions that the figs should be covered 

 at night with some cheap covering whilst 

 on the ' serghi,' and screened from the moth 

 whilst in the depots, and their sojourn there 

 should be as short as possible. Measures 

 for destroying the larvae in the fig usually 

 take the form of heat — either hot air, hot 

 water, or steam. Each is effective, and each 

 has certain advantages and disadvantages; 

 still, the more progressive merchants of Smyrna 

 were, before the War, experimenting trying to 

 find the best means of destroying the larvae, and 

 in time a uniform system will probably emerge. 



