35 
I 
ployed to fight it, and the cost of the material used in the war¬ 
fare, which is immaterial.” Daring the same month I made a 
tour of inspection to the worst-infested mills in the State and 
found that the moth had generally a firmer foothold, and was more 
troublesome, than the year previous. In answer to a query of 
August 16, 1895, the president of the firm in whose mill I made 
my first observations, says: “The flour moth is still with us. It 
is hardly equal to death, but discounts taxes in the inconvenience 
it gives us. The outlook, as compared with a year ago, is about 
the same as regards the probability of becoming entirely rid of 
it; but it affords me great pleasure to tell you that I have it in 
subjection, and that it is not now injuring us nearly so much as 
formerly.” As regards the present distribution of the pest, he 
says in the same letter: “The insect is increasing in this State. 
I believe that every mill in California, and in all probability 
every mill on the Pacific coast, unless it may be some very new 
mill, is infested by these moths. One of the newest mills in 
this State, which is now shut down, was more afflicted with these 
moths than any other mill we have with us. They were so numer¬ 
ous they choked up every spout and elevator, and before the mill 
had run six months it was necessary to shut down and employ a 
force of men to take down all the spouts and elevators and clear 
away the accumulations from them.” 
My recent discovery of a hymenopterous parasite of the larva, 
Bracon hebetor Say, gives encouragement that the pest may be 
at least somewhat checked by this little insect,. This is the first 
reported case of parasitism of this insect in this country, and is 
treated in detail on a subsequent page. Judging from the wide 
distribution of the flour moth on the Pacific coast, it is safe to 
predict that the worst has not yet been recorded. It is only by 
the most persistent and energetic fighting that the pest can be 
kept in check iu any locality; but in California the climate is so 
equable aud so mild that the propagation of the species goes on 
continuously, and I am in doubt if it ever can be entirely eradi¬ 
cated there. Here is what one of my correspondents says on the 
subject: “I think I see in this little insect a very serious pest, 
and that it will be only a question of time when it will be im¬ 
possible to obtain a barrel of flour that does not contain either 
the eggs or larvse of this insect. This would not, however, mili¬ 
tate so much against the manufacture of flour as it would against 
cereals or breakfast foods, or meals, as they are called in millers’ 
parlance. The moth cannot live very long in a sack of flour, 
owing to its being so densely packed that there is no room for it 
to move about, and it thus soon dies; but in coarse meals and 
coarser grain, the moth and larva can move, spin their web, lay 
their eggs, and multiply; and this I fear will eventually destroy 
the popularity of breakfast foods, and ruin to a great extent a 
large trade that has been built up in this country.” Millers 
throughout California have become very much alarmed, and agree 
with my correspondent, that if something, either natural or arti- 
