56 
REPORT ON THE FIG MOTH IN SMYRNA. 
the cost can be reduced. This estimate is based upon figures fur- 
nished by a packer who uses the process. 
In the first experiment the exposure of the figs in the boiling water 
was very much undertimed. A number of figs infested with larvae, 
selected from a pile of refuse and "hordas" a in a "khan," was im- 
mersed in boiling salt water (2.5 per cent solution, containing also 
some glucose) at 100° C. (212° F.) for short periods at varying tem- 
peratures, then put into jars and watched to determine what would 
later breed from them. The following table gives the temperatures 
and lengths of exposure and the number of larvae that emerged at 
intervals of a week or more : 
Temperature, lengths of exposure, and number of larvcc that emerged from 
scalded figs at intervals of a week or more. 
Tempera- 
ture. 
Number 
of figs. 
Number of larvrc present. 
Per cent 
killed. 
Exposure. 
Sept. 
15. 
Sept. 
20. 
Sept. 
26. 
Sept. 
30. 
Oct. 
8. 
Oct. 
28. 
° C. 
100 
90 
80 
70 
100 
100 
Check. 
Seconds. 
10 
10 
10 
10 
5 
1 
Check. 
10 
11 
11 
8 
9 
9 
7 
1 
7 
2 
5 
12 
3 
3 
2 
10 
7 
6 
17 
7 
5 
3 
11 
7 
7 
19 
8 
6 
4 
13 
7 
7 
19 
10 
9 
60 






2 
1 
"2" 
1 
3 
2 
3 
5 
1 
2 
Since the number of larvae present in the figs before boiling was 
plainly variable, the only conclusion reached by this experiment is 
that an exposure of 10 seconds in water at 100° C. (212° F.), while 
it may reduce the number of larvae in the figs somewhat, is quite 
insufficient to kill all of them, and that exposures for shorter periods 
or at lower temperatures than that are practically useless. 
In another experiment figs similarly infested with larvae were im- 
mersed in water containing 2^ per cent of salt and a small amount of 
glucose, boiling at 100° C. (212° F.) for 20, 25, and 30 second periods. 
But these exposures, likewise, proved insufficient. Those scalded for 
20 and 25 seconds, when broken open after the immersion, were found 
still to contain living larvae. In the figs boiled 30 seconds that were 
broken open immediately the larvae were apparently all dead. 
a Figs which have failed to mature on the trees, and which consequently contain no sugar, 
being dry, hard, and flavorless. 
