CHAPTER VIII. 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS AND OTHER DRY VEGETABLE 



FOODS. 



By F. H. Chittenden. 



Of the many insects that infest the granary, flouring mill, and ware- 

 house, a considerable proportion contrive at times to find their way 

 into habitations. A small number of these are of almost universal 

 occurrence in the household, and several others are frequently brought 

 into the pantry or storeroom in cereal foods, dried fruits, and other 

 merchandise. 



^Not so long ago that it has passed out of remembrance it was cus- 

 tomary in well-regulated households, even in large cities, to set aside a 

 room, in addition to the cupboard and cellar, for the storage of barrels 

 of flour, bags of meal, boxes of raisins, dried apples, and the like, and 

 such custom still prevails in country homes; but at the present time 

 city housekeepers purchase for the most part in small quantities at the 

 "corner grocery" from time to time as required. As a consequence, the 

 city housewife, unless she should happen to reside in the immediate 

 neighborhood of a store or warehouse, is not so subject to annoyance 

 from storeroom insects as are her country cousins. There is this differ- 

 ence, however, that the farmer's wife is prone to look upon as a neces- 

 sary evil what the city housekeeper may behold as a veritable calamity. 

 Fortunately, the insects that breed in dry vegetable foods and that dis- 

 play a disposition to make a permanent abode of the storeroom number 

 not more than about a dozen, the remainder, of which a few forms will 

 be selected for passing notice, being only casual visitants and readily 

 controlled under ordinary conditions. 



THE FLOUR BEETLES. 



Several little flattened beetles of a shining reddish brown color and 

 similar appearance generally so frequently occur in bags and barrels 

 of flour as to have earned the popular title of "flour weevils." They 

 live upon cereal and other seeds and various other stored products, but 

 generally prefer flour and meal and patented articles of diet containing 

 farinaceous matter. 



Their eggs are often deposited in the flour in the mills, and these and 

 the larva) they produce, being minute and pale in color, readily escape 

 notice; but after the flour has been barreled or placed in bags and left 

 unopened for any length of time the adult beetles make their appear- 

 ance, and in due course the flour is ruined, for when the insects have 

 112 



