THE TOBACCO BEETLE. 9 
came from other sections of the country where the same class of 
goods was shipped. In another instance a firm manufacturing high- 
erade cigars some years ago organized a separate department in 
which scrap tobacco was worked up into cheaper cigars. At first 
this department showed an annual profit of about $7,000. The 
beetle, however, finally became so destructive to this class of goods, 
and so many shipments were returned to the factory, that this 
branch of the business was discontinued. 
The extent of injury to baled domestic tobacco can not be accu- 
rately determined until the tobacco is finally used, and, as with other 
classes of tobacco, it is difficult or impossible to obtain even an 
approximate estimate of ‘the total loss. 
In wholesale and retail drug stores the insect eae becomes 
a serious pest and causes heavy loss by consuming or by making 
unsalable more expensive products. 
DISTRIBUTION AND DISSEMINATION. 
Commerce has served to distribute the tobacco beetle widely and 
it probably now occurs in all countries having a temperate, subtropi- 
cal, or tropical climate. In warm tobacco-growing countries such as 
Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, where the beetles are numerous 
and breed continuously throughout the year, they are being constantly 
exported in shipments of cigars or bales of cigar tobacco. Examina- 
tions of warehouses in which bales of infested cigar tobacco are 
stored, at ports of entry in this country, have shown them at times to 
be heavily infested with the beetle. 
There has been a very noticeable increase and spread of the tobacco 
beetle in tobacco factories in the United States within comparatively 
recent years. Experienced tobacco dealers and tobacco manufac- 
turers attribute this to the general use of steam in heating factories. 
The higher and uniform temperatures which are thus maintained 
make breeding conditions more favorable. 
In tobacco factories and buildings in which tobacco products or 
suitable food substances are stored the insect spreads by crawling or 
by flight. The adult beetle is capable of flying for a considerable — 
distance. Beetles escaping from cars or ships in which bales or hogs- 
heads of leaf tobacco are shipped find their way to suitable food 
substances which then in turn become new centers of infestation and 
dispersion. As the life cycle of the beetle is comparatively short in 
warm weather, hogsheads of export leaf tobacco, slightly infested 
when sent out, may become heavily infested en route and almost 
worthless ean a long sea voyage, the high temperature and moisture 
in the hold of a vessel creating ideal conditions for reproduction. 
_ The insect is now so generally disseminated throughout the country 
that it is a common occurrence to find it in show cases, storage rooms, 
