30 MISC. PUBLICATION 631, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



or ether may be used as a killing agent, but the liquid should not be 

 allowed to come in contact with the insect. 



Insects should be stored only in a tight wooden box. Metal boxes 

 may permit mold and decay, particularly in warm, damp climates. 

 Boxes that are not tight will permit entrance of dermestids, psocids, 

 and other pests which will destroy the collection. Naphthalene flakes, 

 paradichlorobenzene, or a mixture of the two, will act as a serviceable 

 repellent for the pests. Carbon disulfide is an effective, though highly 

 inflammable and ill-smelling, fumigant. A cigar box may be made 

 fairly satisfactory for temporary storage, if repellent is placed in it 

 and the cracks are sealed with an adhesive tape. All crystals of 

 repellents should be removed before the box is packed for mailing. 



PACKING AND SHIPPING 



Specimens obtained from myiasis patients are valuable, and all 

 reasonable care should be taken to prevent their loss and breakage 

 in the mails. If a series of larvae and reared adults is obtained, not 

 all the specimens of a series should be trusted to one shipment. A 

 tragic example of failure to observe this precaution is on record. 

 Onorato (96), after accumulating considerable material over a period 

 of years, sent it to the Italian dipterist, Bezzi, for determination, 

 and one lot, including all the material from certain cases, was lost 

 in a train wreck before reaching its destination. Onorato's work 

 would have gained considerably in value had these determinations 

 been available. Because of the danger of loss or breakage, it is well 

 to avoid shipment at times of heavy mail movements, as for example 

 near the Christmas holiday season. 



For shipping pinned material (fig. 7, A) a wooden or heavy card- 

 board box deep enough to accommodate the pins should be used. 

 The bottom of the box should be lined with cork, balsa wood, double 

 corrugated cardboard, fiberboard, or some other material of such a 

 texture that the pins can be driven into it and held firmly. This 

 pinning surface should itself be firmly attached to the bottom of 

 the box. The pins should be driven into the pinning surface to such 

 a depth that there will be no reasonable danger of their working loose. 

 If there is any appreciable space between the heads of the pins and 

 the top of the .shipping box, a piece of light cardboard, cut to the 

 size of the interior of the box, should be laid upon the support formed 

 by the pinheads, accessory empty pins being used to complete the 

 support, if necessary. The space between the cardboard and the top 

 of the box should be filled with Cellucotton or some similar material 

 which will hold the cardboard firmly in place; this material must not, 

 however, be of such a nature that fragments of it will seep down 

 around the edges of the cardboard .and become entangled with the 

 insects. 



It is best to wrap the shipping box in paper (newspaper will do), 

 and then to place it in a corrugated cardboard box or carton large 

 enough to accommodate a protective layer of loose cotton, excelsior, 

 frayed or crumpled paper, or some other packing material. The 

 thickness of this layer may depend upon the size of the shipping box ; 

 for a cigar box it should be at least 2% inches on all sides. The 

 practice sometimes recommended of wrapping the shipping box in 

 heavy paper, with a little excelsior between the box and the paper. 



