SCREENINGS. 
83 
The above remarks show the reason why thorough whitewashing, 
which gets at the weevils in the chinks where otherwise they would 
rest in peace till ready for further mischief, is of such great service. 
The following observation by Mr. E. A. Fitch, of Brick House, 
Maldon, on the subject of prevention and remedy of this granary pest, 
are excellent:— 
“ Cleanliness alone will do the required work, and this requires to 
be thorough to cope with such a crevice and cranny-loving hybernating 
insect as the Calandra. Frequent lime-washing and scrubbing (with 
soft-soap) of granaries, and plastering of all uneven wall surfaces, and 
asphalting or concreting of all uneven floors, the free use of the 
dressing-machine or blower, and frequent sifting or turning over of 
the grain, are the only remedies against weevil-attack. It is also 
necessary to guard against mixing sound wheat with any containing 
‘ weevil,’ except for immediate grinding ; also to see to the destruction 
of all rubbish and tail-corn, in which it is possible for the beetles to 
live or breed.”* 
The following information regarding granary weevils (also taken 
from the above-quoted paper) is of so much serviceable interest that I 
give it also in Mr. Fitch’s own words:— 
“ The wheats which are now affected to any very serious extent 
are the Indian, and I have often seen samples of the excessively dry 
Calcutta and South-eastern Asian wheat in which it was almost im¬ 
possible to find a perfect corn, the valuable starch of the kernel being 
consumed by the destructive little weevils. Calandra like wheat and 
many other useful products, with their attendant evils, is undoubtedly 
an introduction from the East. 
“ Weevily wheat is invariably dressed after landing, and a large 
percentage of the little beetles are thus screened or blown out; but, of 
course, many of the insects resident in the corn, and all in the larva 
or pupa state, escape, the kernel not yet being light enough to be 
separated. .When the cargo is very badly affected,—when the whole 
bulk seems alive, as I have myself seen them on very hot summer 
days,—it is a common practice, for merchants to spout it, i.e., to 
shoot the grain down a spouted trough, in which at the angle is a wire 
sieve with the meshes large enough to let the weevils through, but 
not the corn, which runs into the granary, or into sacks, as the case 
may be. 
“By such means the quantity of weevils and dust sifted out is 
enormous, and this appliance is generally so situated at the wharves 
that the beetles are deposited near the edge of the wharf, or even in 
the river-bed, and, if not naturally washed away at high-tide, are 
* See “ Granary Weevils,” byE. A. Fitch; the ‘ Entomologist,’No. 189, February, 
1879. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 
D 
