28 



BULLETIN OF 

 MASSACHUSETTS BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



ENTOMOL aiCAL. 



The Buffalo Carpet Beetle. 

 Anthrenus scrophularice L, 



This insect is exceedingly destructive to all kinds of woollen 

 materials, but not to cotton or silk. The injuries reported to have 

 been done to silk, lace curtains, etc., must have been done by 

 something else. 



Buffalo beetles and their larvae seem to be much more abundant 

 in rooms on the second and third floors than in those below, and in 

 the month of March, in rooms that have been kept w^arm, the 

 beetles emerge and fly to the windows, where they may be taken 

 and destroyed. If housekeepers would look for them frequently 

 at the windows, from the latter part of February till the end of 

 March, and destroy all the beetles found, they would undoubtedly 

 have far less trouble the following summer. Many of the beetles 

 feed and transform in wool or woollens in outhouses, barns or sta- 

 bles. The beetles bred in such places emerge much later in the 

 season and gather about flowers, within which they appear to feed, 

 perhaps on the pollen, and are often brought into the houses in large 

 numbers in the flowers. 



The larvae are often found feeding upon the woollen lint that 

 has accumulated in the cracks of floors, and unless these are care- 

 fully cleaned out, or covered with paper under the carpet, they may 

 come up and eat the carpet along the line of the crack, cutting it 

 as completely as could be done with scissors. It is desirable, 

 therefore, before putting down a carpet in a badly infested room, 

 to saturate the lint in the cracks with benzine and cover the floor 

 very carefully with carpet paper, or even with newspapers, in such 

 away that the larvae cannot find access to the carpet from beneath. 

 Some housekeepers paste paper over the cracks in the floor and 

 also around the edge, turning it up and pasting it on the base- 

 board, so as to cover the space between this and the floor. 



The beetles usually lay their eggs and the larvas attack the car- 



