CONTROL OF INSECTS IN TOBACCO 5 



Habits 



Practically all injury to tobacco by the cigarette beetle is caused by 

 the feeding of the larvae. The adults do not feed and the only damage 

 they cause is to cut exit holes to escape from the tobacco or package 

 in which pupation occurred. Most of the adults attempt to leave the 

 tobacco. However, this insect can mate and lay eggs in close 

 confinement, and a certain proportion of the adults do. 



This insect attacks all the principal types of cigarette, cigar, chew- 

 ing, and snuff tobaccos, as well as most forms of manufactured tobacco. 

 Burley and Maryland tobaccos are rarely attacked, however, and 

 have never been known to be damaged. 



The larva burrows through the tobacco, cutting rather neat, clean 

 holes, and leaving behind a fine powder of excrement. Cigars and 

 cigarettes are made unfit for smoking by the holes in the wrapper 

 or paper, which prevent a satisfactory draught. Infested smoking 

 or chewing tobacco or infested snuff is generally objectionable to the 

 consumer from the aesthetic as well as the taste standpoint. However, 

 the greatest losses occasioned by the cigarette beetle occur in leaf 

 tobacco in storage. Injury to leaf tobacco is shown in figure 3. 



The cigarette beetle also commonly infests cottonseed meal, dry 

 yeast, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, and cayenne pepper. It 

 has been recorded from different parts of the world as feeding on 

 opium, red pepper, paprika, turmeric, saffron, mixed spices, licorice, 

 pyrethrum powder, bran, belladonna, raisins, dried figs, corn meal, 

 rice, leather, and woolen fabrics. 



THE TOBACCO MOTH 



The tobacco moth is widely distributed in the Temperate and Tropi- 

 cal Zones of the world. It was first reported as a pest of American 

 tobacco in 1930, and now is probably the most important pest of flue- 

 cured and oriental types of tobacco in the United States. It has never 

 been recorded as attacking air-cured, fire-cured, or cigar types of to- 

 bacco. In 1937-40 an outbreak of this insect occurred in farmers' 

 packhouses in North Carolina and Virginia. Farmers suffered heavy 

 losses between the time their flue-cured tobacco was harvested and 

 the time it was sold. Slight damage was reported from some farms 

 in 1948 and 1949. 



Description and Life History 



The adult tobacco moth is a small gray or brownish-gray moth. It 

 measures about % inch from head to tips of folded wings and has a 

 wingspread of about % inch. The eggs are laid singly or in loose 

 groups on or near tobacco. They are sandy white when laid, and 

 gradually turn darker. They are slightly elongate, and about 1 / li5 inch 

 in length. The shell is very tough, and the eggs are only loosely at- 

 tached. The larvae are tiny when first hatched but grow to % to y 2 

 inch. They are pinkish white and have a few fine hairs. The head 

 is reddish brown, and the body has small brown spots along the back. 

 When full grown, the larvae spin loose weblike cocoons in which they 

 transform to pupae, and then emerge as adult moths. 



