Vol. LIX. No. 2651. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 17, 1900. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
THE ANGOUMOIS MOTH IN NEW JERSEY. 
GREAT DESTRUCTION OF STORED GRAIN. 
What Can Be Done ? 
Monmouth Co., N. J., is not usually classed as a 
wheat-growing region, its products being mainly or¬ 
chard and small fruits, and market vegetables which 
are shipped in enormous quantities to New York; the 
excellent railroad service and cheap water transpor¬ 
tation from its extended coast line giving producers 
a great advantage in this re¬ 
spect. Nevertheless most 
farmers grow wheat as part 
of their rotation, even 
though the chief money crop 
may be apples, strawberries, 
potatoes or asparagus. In a 
good wheat season, like the 
present, the crop runs close 
to 150,000 bushels, the yield 
going as high as 35 to 40 
bushels per acre on the best- 
managed lands. This is, of 
course, very satisfactory to 
the owners of these light 
soils, but those who delayed 
thrashing until October are 
now horrified to find their 
grain badly riddled by an un¬ 
known insect, which has 
since been declared by the 
State Entomologist to be the 
larvae of the Angoumois 
grain-moth. Just how much 
wheat is affected cannot be 
fully estimated at this time, 
as the pest is not uniformly 
spread over the county, af¬ 
fecting the southern and 
western portions to the 
greatest extent. The wheat 
thrashes out in a broken and 
splintered condition, and im¬ 
mediately begins to heat 
when bagged or stored. Sev¬ 
eral carloads shipped to New 
York remain on the tracks 
unsold, the dealers claiming 
all milling value had been 
destroyed. It looks as though 
the only use that can be 
made of such grain is to feed 
it to poultry and stock. An 
examination of the wheat re¬ 
veals a minute hole termin¬ 
ating in a pocket of greater 
or less size containing a lit¬ 
tle maggot or pupae as the 
case may be. Mr. D. L. Stil- 
well, of Keyport, the largest 
grain buyer in the county, 
says this insect has never 
been known to damage wheat 
in northern New Jersey un¬ 
til last year, when some trifl¬ 
ing losses were reported, but 
he had heard of it making trouble in the southern 
part of the State and in Pennsylvania for several sea¬ 
sons past. If the presence of this pest had been re¬ 
ported in 1899, as soon as damage was noticed, to the 
State Experiment Station or to the horticultural 
press, it is likely that the present heavy losses, prob¬ 
ably amounting to the greater part of the value of 
60,000 to 70,000 bushels, could have been averted, as 
prompt information concerning the life habits of the 
Angoumois moth and other insects injurious to stored 
grain would have been at once furnished to all parties 
interested. This grain-moth turns up in destructive 
numbers at rather rare and irregular intervals 
throughout the wheat-growing districts. 
As most of the injury to grain caused by this moth 
takes place when in the sheaf, during the three 
months following harvest, further loss can be pre¬ 
vented by thrashing immediately after cutting and 
treating the grain with bisulphide of carbon at the 
rate of one pound to each 100 bushels, in a tight 
granary, as frequently directed in The R. N.-Y. and 
other farm publications. At this late day the only 
practical thing to do is to use the bisulphide on all 
wheat showing a tendency to heat after thrashing, 
store carefully, and await a market or feed it up on 
the place. w. v. r. 
The Story of the Insect. 
This little insect may be found in our fields and 
granaries each year in greater or less abundance; but 
farmers nave got into the habit of accepting a certain 
percentage of loss from insects without grumbling 
much, and only when, from climatic or other causes, 
the damage becomes excessive, do they open their eyes 
to the existence of beings that have been with them 
since they have raised crops. So it is with the An¬ 
goumois grain-moth, which has this year, in southern 
New Jersey, in parts of Pennsylvania and in some of 
the other States in that same general section, caused 
serious injury in stored wheat. The insect is not at 
all new; Dr. Riley wrote of it many years ago, and it 
is referred to by entomologists almost every year in 
some parts of the country. 
In the same regions where 
it is most abundant now, it 
was plentiful in 1891, and at 
that time its life history was 
published in newspapers and 
elsewhere, until it would 
seem as though everyone 
should know all about the 
species. A less marked in¬ 
vasion came in 1898, and 
again most of the local news¬ 
papers throughout New Jer¬ 
sey published a circular sent 
to them by the Experiment 
Station giving directions as 
to how the insect might be 
best treated. Yet in 1900 the 
insect seems to be as little 
known as It was 10 years 
ago; hence, a brief statement 
as to its life history and the 
best method of dealing with 
it, is called for. Its life his¬ 
tory is a very simple one. 
The Angoumois grain-moth 
is a little “miller," “fly" or 
“moth,” with narrow buff or 
yellowish wings, found flying 
at this time in large num¬ 
bers in barns in which grain 
is stored. Under natural con¬ 
ditions it winters in the ker¬ 
nels of grain or corn as a 
larva or caterpillar, and in 
Spring, when it attains the 
moth stage, it flies into the 
fields to lay its eggs. This 
occurs usually some time in 
May, differing of course ac¬ 
cording to latitude. The 
eggs are laid in standing 
grain, in lots of 20 or more 
on a single head, usually on 
a single forming kernel. The 
larvae each eat into a kernel, 
and reach full growth about 
the time the grain is also 
mature and ready to cut. If 
wheat is now harvested and 
left in shock the moths 
emerge, lay their eggs in the 
drying kernels, and the sec¬ 
ond brood begins to develop 
during July. Were the grain 
now left outdoors to meet 
its natural fate, that would be the practical end of the 
insect, because, by the time they came to maturity 
there would be little left for them in condition to sup¬ 
port more than a small fragment further. But the 
farmer takes in his grain and mows it. Now when 
the moths come out in August they are in a dry, com¬ 
fortable place, with nothing to interfere with them, 
they take advantage of this, of course, lay another 
batch of eggs, and in September and early October, 
when the farmer thinks of thrashing, the wheat is a 
mass of “millers" and eaten-out kernels. This hap- 
A HOPE FARM CORNFIELD—FERTILIZERS AND SOD. Fig. 291. 
COW PEAS GROWING IN A LOAFER FIELD AT HOPE FARM. Fig. 292. 
