21 



winds, the eggs will not hatch, and this puts an end to them for that year, with the 

 exception of a few scattering ones. Thus a dry and hot July and August is always 

 a heavy crop year on the heavy, black, waxy prairie lauds. Now I wish to know 

 whether we have adopted the hest course for the destruction of the Boll Worm. Is 

 there any other course that has heen successful iu destroying them ? Any advice or 

 suggestions that you may choose to give us will he thankfully received. 

 — [William Somerville, Bagwell. Red River County, Tex., June 17, 1689. 



Reply. — I heg to acknowledge the receipt of yours of June 17 in reference to the 

 damage done hy the Boll Worm in your State. I can hest answer your question hy 

 sending you a copy of the Fourth Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission, 

 published in 1885, and which you do not seem to have seen. You will find the Boll 

 Worm treated on pages 355 to 384. The destruction of the moths by trapping is not 

 a satisfactory remedy, for experiments have proven with other species that the great 

 majority of the insects so captured are either males, or females which have already 

 laid their eggs. The first business of the female moth after issuing seems to be to lay 

 her eggs, so that very few of them are caught in this way. The result is that other 

 remedies are of much greater avail. The suggestion regarding the worming of corn 

 while the first brood of worms is at work is a most excellent one, and the use of the 

 arsenical poisons as indicated upon page 381 also affords a good remedy. The sugges- 

 tion upon page 380, that in localities where no corn is grown over a considerable 

 space it will pay to grow small patches here and there as traps for the early worms, 

 is also a good one. It will be unnecessary to elaborate further, as the information 

 is all contained in condensed form in this report. —[June 22, 1889.] 



A cosmopolitan Flour Pest. 



We send you herewith specimens of insects which are breeding in our flour mill. 

 They seem to breed under basement floors and come up and fly away on warm days. 

 There seems to be a difference of opinion as to what they are, and as there are no en- 

 tomologists in this section Ave would be pleased to have your opinion and whether or 

 not they will be likely to become a pest. They do not seem to work in wheat bins, 

 but rather in flour dust in dark places. They breed all winter and spring and are now 

 very numerous. We have tried several remedies, but Persian insect powder is the 

 only thing that killed them. — [McPherson & Stevens, Sprague, Wash. Ty., May 18, 

 1889. 



Reply. — Your letter of May 18 with accompanying specimens has beeu received. 

 The beetle which occurs iu your flour mill is Philetus bifasciatus, a cosmopolitan 

 species which feeds everywhere in flour and farinaceous products. Inasmnch as you 

 find that Persian insect powder kills them readily we would advise you to use it very 

 thoroughly and to hold them iu complete subjection, for otherwise they will doubt- 

 less become quite a pest with you. — [May 27, 1889.] 



Mites on a Neck-tie. 



I send you in a tin box a neck-tie covered with Acari which a gentleman sends me 

 from San Francisco. He says the tie has lain in a drawer and has been worn at in- 

 tervals. He first noticed the " foreign substance " two weeks ago and thought it sand 

 until he detected motion in the particles. What mite is it ? How can garments be 

 best treated to get rid of it ?— [E. J. Wicksou, Berkeley, Cah, May 25, 1689. 



Reply. — Yours of the 25th ultimo aud mites duly received. We cau not distinguish 

 between the specimens found ou the neck-tie and the common Cheese Mite ( Tyroglyj)hu8 

 giro), and there must have been something very peculiar about those neck-ties or else 

 the gentleman who sent the specimens must have beeu a bachelor and have kept his 

 crackers and cheese in the saint' drawer with his clothes. The same mite, as you 

 know, is found in Hour of all kinds and milk. Sulphur is the best remedy. Either 

 fumigate: with burning sulphur or sprinkle with flowers of sulphur mixed in water. — 

 [June 1, 1689.] 



