236 APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



Control for the Leopard Moth and for Carpenter Moths in general is to locate 

 the entrance holes of the larvae and inject a little carbon disulfid into them, then 

 stopping the opening with putty, mud or wax. Thoroughly infested trees should 

 be cut and burned during the cold months, to destroy the caterpillars in them, 

 as such trees are doomed in any case. 



Family Tineidae (Tineids). The insects belonging in this family 

 are all Microlepidoptera, the distance between the tips of their wings 

 when spread being generally much less than an inch. They are not 

 noticeable insects and only a few are of great importance. Three, 

 however, are serious household pests and cause much injury, being the 

 species commonly called Clothes Moths, all natives of Europe but for 

 many years now, present in this country. 



The Case-making Clothes Moth (Tinea pellionella L.). This is the 

 most generally distributed of the three species and is the most common 

 one in the North. The moth flies at night and may frequently be seen in 



FIG. 230. FIG. 231. 



FIG. 230. Adult of Case-making Clothes Moth (Tinea pellionella L.) four times natural 

 size. (From Herrick's Insects Injurious to the Household. By Permission of the Macmillan 

 Company, Publishers.) 



FIG. 231. Case of the Case-making Clothes Moth, three times natural size. (From 

 Herrick's Insects Injurious to the Household. By Permission of the Macmillan Company, 

 Publishers.) 



infested houses flying about the rooms but not attracted to any light 

 there may be present. In fact, if during June, July or August any tiny 

 moth flies to the light in a room at night, that fact is of itself evidence that 

 the insect is not a clothes moth. 



The adult (Fig. 230) is grayish-yellow with faint spots, its hind wings 

 more nearly a silvery gray. It spreads about half an inch. The eggs are 

 generally laid on woolen goods of any kind, furs or feathers. They 

 hatch in about 10 days and each larva constructs a case (Fig. 231) made of 

 particles of the materials on which it feeds, lined with silk, and with its 

 body in the case, crawls about, feeding as it goes. As it grows and the 

 case becomes too small, the caterpillar enlarges it and when full-grown 

 attaches it to some object and pupates in it, the moth emerging about 

 3 weeks later. In the North there usually seems to be but one generation 

 a year but in the South there are two and possibly more. 



The Webbing Clothes Moth (Tineola biselliella Hum.). This species, 

 though found in the North, is most common in the South. The adult 



