CONTROL OF INSECTS IN TOBACCO 



11 



Figure 7. — The braconid parasite Microhracon bebetor (Say). Greatly enlarged. 



(After Doten.) 



SOURCE OF INSECT INFESTATIONS IN TOBACCO 



Cigarette Tobaccos 



in farmers' packhouses 



The tobacco moth is sometimes a serious pest of flue-cured tobacco 

 on the farm. Infestation may begin even in the curing barn and con- 

 tinue until the tobacco is marketed. Most damage occurs in the pack- 

 house, where the tobacco is bulked before grading. Infestation may 

 develop from moths flying from commercial storages or farms nearby, 

 or it may be already established on the farm and carried over from 

 year to year in grain, peas or beans, stock feeds, or other host foods. 



IN STORAGE WAREHOUSES 



The redrying of flue-cured leaf tobacco before it is packed in hogs- 

 heads for storage destroys all stages of the cigarette beetle and the 

 tobacco moth. Hence, leaf tobacco is free of insect infestation when it 

 is prized into hogsheads. However, the crop of bright tobacco is 

 redried from July through December, most of it late in the summer. 

 At this time insects are active, and almost all warehouses and redrying 

 plants, and often the trucks and freight cars in which tobacco is 

 shipped, are infested. 



If newly packed tobacco is held for even a few hours in an infested 

 building or vehicle, it may become infested. Moths or beetles fly 

 about and lay eggs on the tobacco or in the cracks of the hogshead or 

 case. The larvae that hatch from these eggs immediately begin feed- 

 ing on the tobacco. Tobacco packed in July or August can develop 



