THE TOBACCO BEETLE. 



51 



be easily destroyed at such times by brushing them down into pans 

 of water or oil, or onto sheets of sticky fly paper. In a tobacco ware- 

 house visited by the writer the owners make it part of the regular 

 duties of the watchman to visit each window in the building where 

 the beetles collect and sweep them down on sheets of fly paper spread 

 out on the window sills. Immense numbers of the beetles are de- 

 stroyed in this way at very little cost. 



COLLECTING BEETLES BY SUCTION. 



The use of suction fans operated at lights for collecting the beetles 

 in warehouses has been reported. There has been no opportunity to 



Fig. 14. — Suction fan used for collecting adults of the tobacco beetle in a tobacco ware- 

 house. 



test this method. The use of vacuum cleaners operated by electric 

 current might possibly prove to be an effective method of collect- 

 ing beetles at the windows of warehouses. At Lancaster, Pa., a suc- 

 tion fan was used in one of the large tobacco warehouses. Beetles 

 could be readily drawn from cracks in the building and from about 

 windows, and large numbers were said to have been collected in a 

 short time on several occasions. A photograph of the apparatus 

 used is shown in figure 14. 



OTHER REMEDIES. 



EXPOSUKE TO VACUUM. 



In 1912, a series of experiments were made at Clarksville, Tenn., 

 by Mr. A. C. Morgan and the writer to ascertain the effect of treating 

 infested tobacco in vacuum. With the apparatus used, a vacuum of 

 about 28.5 inches could be readily obtained. When the air in the 

 vacuum chamber was exhausted the beetles became inactive, but after 

 exposures varying from 1 to 24 hours they again became active when 

 normal air pressure was restored. In some of the experiments a few 

 adults were killed. The eggs hatched normally after exposure. 

 While the experiments with vacuum apparatus alone from a practical 



